'The Science of Revenge' Review: Vengeance Isn't Benign [View all]

A book review, but these paragraphs are important:


Disillusioned, Kimmel left his law practice and spent years researching the roots of revenge. Our compulsion to hurt those who have hurt us, Mr. Kimmel learned, lies deep in our brain chemistry. When we believe that someone has wronged us, our brain’s “pain network” in the anterior insula is activated. Getting revenge—or merely thinking about it—then releases dopamine and activates the brain’s pleasure circuitry in the nucleus accumbens and dorsal striatum.

Revenge, in other words, delivers a chemical high. So much so, Mr. Kimmel says, that we all “regularly self-stage, self-create, and self-imagine grievances all the time to get delicious hits of revenge.” Like drug-taking and other activities that release dopamine, revenge can even become a matter of addiction. If we are mentally wired to feel good when those who have caused us pain are made to suffer, then we will want to keep those hits coming. Maybe that’s why there are four John Wick films.

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