Charles Q. Choi
Special to LiveScience
LiveScience.com 2 hours, 55 minutes ago
Spite is a dark emotion that nonetheless seems to help set humanity apart from its closest primate relatives, new research suggests.
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The sinister emotion that angrily dwells on how unfair the world is could shed light on the unusual human notion of fair play, and scientists say the research could help understand how and why these dark and light sides of human nature evolved.
One concept some researchers think is unique to humans is the idea of fairness—that everyone should share the same advantages and disadvantages.
The presence of spite in humanity could shed light on why people can cooperate so well with each other. "Spite is a bit nasty, but it reflects how much you care what actually happens to the other guy," Jensen told LiveScience. "The fact that humans are sensitive to fairness has a dark side, but also a good side."
"Spite, envy and jealousy are definitely not the best human qualities, but we have them and can't get rid of them, so it's interesting to study them to put humans in a wider context
So chew on that befoe you start the flaming
