The impact of shame, humiliation and pride on revenge desire and behavior in victims of crime: a pilot experimental study

Experiencing violent crime has been associated with a higher likelihood of committing violent offenses, which can be driven by revenge desire. Revenge desire can also harm victims’ mental health. While anger is a well-established emotional predictor of revenge (Roseman et al., 1994; Tripp & Bies, 2010), the role of self-conscious emotions, including shame, humiliation, and pride, has rarely been tested (Elshout et al., 2015). These emotions may be especially relevant to crime victims, who frequently experience shame and humiliation post-victimisation. This study examined whether inducing shame and humiliation increased revenge desire and behaviour, and whether inducing pride reduced revenge, in crime victims (N = 108). Participants were betrayed in a prisoner’s dilemma game and randomly assigned to a shame/humiliation, pride, or control condition. They then reported revenge desire and could administer noise-blasts as revenge. Humiliation significantly predicted both revenge desire and acts; shame approached significance for revenge desire, and pride was unrelated. These findings suggest that negative self-conscious emotions, particularly humiliation, can trigger revenge in crime victims and should be targeted in violence prevention efforts.