Tendencies towards underhelping following a mild provocation: a behavioural investigation into the nature of revenge between strangers versus intimates

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine whether people would be more or less likely to seek revenge against a romantic partner or a stranger following an in-lab provocation. Dating couples attended each session and were led to believe they were playing two computer games either with their own romantic partner or a stranger. In actuality, all participants played both games with a pre-programmed computer. Whereas the first game served as the provocation, the second game provided participants with an opportunity to retaliate in the form of an "underhelping" behaviour. The predicted interaction was not found. Regardless of who they believed their game partner was, provoked participants retaliated to a greater extent than not provoked participants and, independent of whether they were provoked or not, participants were less likely to underhelp their romantic partners than strangers.