Self-regulatory correlates of spitefulness

Abstract

Spitefulness is an under-studied individual difference that describes a dispositional tendency to seek harm against others at the expense of one's own objectives. Given that spiteful behavior involves a voluntary setback of one's own goals, it is noteworthy that no research to date has examined the self-regulatory and motivational correlates of spitefulness. In this research, we show that spitefulness is positively related to prevention regulatory focus and trait impulsiveness, and negatively related to approach temperament, suggesting that spitefulness is generally motivated by spontaneous concerns about threat avoidance. In contrast, spitefulness was not predicted by promotion regulatory focus, avoidance temperament, dispositional locomotion, or dispositional assessment in our regression model.