Self-Reported Spite Predicts Spiteful Behavior in an Online Crowd-Sourced Sample.

Abstract

Spiteful behavior, where one is willing to harm oneself to harm another, is a common social behavior that is associated with social competition. However, there is currently only one well-used psychological measure that claims to measure spitefulness, the Spitefulness Scale (Marcus et al., 2014). At present, there is little research investigating whether spite, as measured by this scale, is associated with spiteful decision-making. To test this relationship, we asked a UK sample (N = 113; 51% female, M^age = 38) to play a Joy of Destruction game before completing the Spitefulness Scale. Participant scores on the scale predicted whether participants spent any non-zero amount on destroying the resources of others and the amount spent by those who chose destruction. The results add further support to the validity of the Spitefulness Scale as a predictor of spiteful behavior, and suggests its utility can expand to data collected via online crowd-sourcing.