Construct · 3 fields · 5 citations

Where does spite collide?

One name. Different field. Different construct. One map.

● jingle · one word, three constructs Nearest construct by meaningmalicecompare the meanings
How to read this

Every construct on the map is compared with every other by the meaning of its definitions, and the closest one is surfaced here. The nearest construct to spite is malice.

Hold this as a prompt, not a verdict. Two constructs sitting close in meaning is a reason to read them side by side and decide for yourself whether they are one idea under two names. It is not proof that they are. Compare the meanings in the Collider.

spite3 CONSTRUCTSHamiltonian spiteHAMILTON · FITNESS COSTSpiteful preferenceLEVINE · SPITE PREFERENCESpitefulness traitMARCUS · SPITEFULNESS

Spokes are fields; dashed arcs are shared lineage. Tap a field for its definition, unit, and measures.

1970Hamiltonian spite1998Spiteful preference2014Spitefulness trait
2026

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Evolutionary biology

behaviour by which an organism lowers another's reproductive success while also lowering its own.

Hamilton's 1970 Selfish and Spiteful Behaviour in an Evolutionary Model named the case in which an organism lowers another individual's reproductive success while also lowering its own, and showed that natural selection can still favour it when the harmed individual is more distantly related to the actor than an average member of the population, so the harm indirectly benefits the actor's closer relatives. West and Gardner's 2010 review in Science set out how narrow the genetic conditions for this really are and how few clear examples exist in nature. Here the referent is an effect on inclusive fitness, counted in offspring and shared gene copies, and it is not a weight in a person's preferences inferred from their choices, nor a personality trait scored on a questionnaire.[1][2]

Unit
One act's net effect on inclusive fitness, in offspring or shared gene copies
Recovery means
Not applicable
Measured by
Estimated from relatedness and from the change in reproductive success of actor and recipient

Behavioral economics

a preference to give up some of one's own money to reduce another player's payoff.

Levine's 1998 Modeling Altruism and Spitefulness in Experiments built a model in which a person's satisfaction falls when others gain, so they will give up some of their own money to reduce another player's payoff, and he estimated how strong this tendency was across laboratory games. Fehr and Gaechter's 2000 study in the American Economic Review showed people paying to punish free riders even when the punishment brought them no material return. Here the referent is a weight inside a person's utility function, fitted to the choices they make for money in experiments, and it is not an evolutionary effect on reproductive success, nor a fixed feature of personality.[3][4]

Unit
A parameter in a person's utility function, fitted to their choices
Recovery means
Not applicable
Measured by
Estimated from how much money a person forgoes to lower another player's payoff in games

Personality psychology

A trait: harming others at cost to oneself

Marcus, Zeigler-Hill, Mercer, and Norris's 2014 The Psychology of Spite and the Measurement of Spitefulness defined spitefulness as a stable disposition to harm another person even when doing so also harms or costs the actor, and built the first self-report scale to measure how much people differ in it. They reported that higher scores went together with other socially aversive traits and with lower agreeableness and self-esteem. Here the referent is a personality trait scored for one individual on a questionnaire, and it is not a weight fitted to choices in an economic game, nor an effect on reproductive success in a population.[5]

Unit
One individual's score on a spitefulness questionnaire
Recovery means
Not applicable
Measured by
Assessed by the self-report Spitefulness Scale and its links to other traits

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Nearby collisions

malice3 fields · 4 citationsjingle · one word, three constructsaltruism4 fields · 5 citationsjingle · one word, four constructsfitness4 fields · 5 citationsjingle · one word, four constructs

References

  1. Hamilton, W. D. (1970). Selfish and spiteful behaviour in an evolutionary model. Nature, 228(5277), 1218–1220. https://doi.org/10.1038/2281218a0
  2. West, S. A., & Gardner, A. (2010). Altruism, spite, and greenbeards. Science, 327(5971), 1341–1344. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1178332
  3. Levine, D. K. (1998). Modeling altruism and spitefulness in experiments. Review of Economic Dynamics, 1(3), 593–622. https://doi.org/10.1006/redy.1998.0023
  4. Fehr, E., & Gächter, S. (2000). Cooperation and punishment in public goods experiments. American Economic Review, 90(4), 980–994. https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.90.4.980
  5. Marcus, D. K., Zeigler-Hill, V., Mercer, S. H., & Norris, A. L. (2014). The psychology of spite and the measurement of spitefulness. Psychological Assessment, 26(2), 563–574. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0036039

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