adjective. full of spite or malice; showing spite; malicious; malevolent; venomous. a spiteful child. SYNONYMS vengeful, mean, cruel, rancorous. spiteful, revengeful, vindictive refer to a desire to inflict a wrong or injury on someone, usually in return for one received.
For example, in the divide and choose method, a spiteful player would have to make a trade-off between depriving his opponent of cake, and getting more himself. Within the field of sociobiology, spite is used to describe those social behaviors that have a negative impact on both the actor and recipient(s).
In today's usage, spite (at its best) is viewed as executing revenge on another perceived as having harmed us, and (at its worst) an act of gratuitous malice, undertaken by a morally bankrupt sociopath.
Spite is one of the most negative emotions. It ranges from the ruthless, malicious, and enormously destructive, to the trivial and seemingly harmless.
Spiteful behavior can be modeled with game theory. Spite can come from desperation, strategic signaling, or lack of thought. Spite can mask as forgiveness.
Spiteful implies a mean or malicious desire for (often petty) revenge: a spiteful attitude toward a former friend. Revengeful implies a deep, powerful, and continued intent to repay a wrong: a fierce and revengeful spirit.
Many psychologists believe that vindictiveness is a defense mechanism used to boost one's self-esteem and regulate emotions when feeling insecure or threatened. It's often tied to other defenses like narcissistic projection, denial, idealization of themselves, and devaluation of others.
Even if you're respectful when you address the situation, a spiteful person may not back down. If the other person remains hostile or negative, you need to be the bigger person. Do not resort to any negative tactics the person uses, such as yelling or name calling. Instead, remain calm and walk away if necessary.
1 of 2 noun. ˈspīt. : dislike or hatred for another person with a wish to torment, anger, or defeat. spite. 2 of 2 verb.
If you do something cruel out of spite, you do it because you want to hurt or upset someone. I didn't help him, out of spite I suppose. If you do something cruel to spite someone, you do it in order to hurt or upset them.
1. A young Julius Caesar was once kidnapped by pirates. After paying off the ransom, Caesar raised an army, captured the pirates and had them crucified. The story goes that 25-year-old Julius Caesar was sailing on the Aegen Sea when he was captured by pirates.
Spite has also been studied as a trait of human personality; although in general spite has been largely ignored in academic literature.
Spite occurs when an individual damages its own fitness to harm another's. This negative form of altruism can arise if the victim is less related to the perpetrator than an average member of the population.
While spite is often viewed as a negative emotion, there is a benefit to embracing it as a motivator. As long as that it isn't paired with physical malice, spite has the ability to actually motivate people to take action.
Spite—social behaviour that inflicts harm with no direct benefit to the actor—can evolve when it is disproportionally directed at individuals playing different strategies. The introduction of negative assortment alters the dynamics in a way that increases the chance fairness evolves, but at a cost: spite also evolves.
Spiteful behaviors occur when an actor harms its own fitness to inflict harm on the fitness of others. Several papers have predicted that spite can be favored in sufficiently small populations, even when the harming behavior is directed indiscriminately at others.
When a person is acting vindictively, they might say things that seek to define you in a certain way. “You're so weak” or “You're always imagining stuff,” for example. Consider reminding yourself that they're hurt and perhaps trying to hurt you, too, due to how they inaccurately perceive a situation as threatening.
People who set great store by their reputations, for example, are more likely to seek revenge if they feel they and their honor have been unfairly impugned. But the clear top-scorer on the vengefulness scale is the person high in narcissistic traits. Up next? The one high in neuroticism.
It can also be used to describe the vengeful actions of such a person. A person described as vindictive is usually someone who holds a grudge and who always tries to get back at people who they think have wronged them in some way. Vindictive people retaliate against others for any insult or perceived slight.
Hello, If you do something cruel out of spite, you do it because you want to hurt or upset someone. He thinks Dan has vandalized the car out of spite. Never had she met such spite and pettiness. Synonyms of spite are malice, malevolence, ill will, hate.
Spite, in the words of Merriam and Webster, is “the desire to hurt, annoy, or offend someone.” But I like this definition better: “Spite [is] the shady relative of altruism.” If altruism is costly behavior that helps another, spiteful characters pay to harm another.