Take Alan Markovitz. When his ex-wife moved in with a new partner, he started to suspect the pair had been having an affair while they were still marr

Can spite be good? How writing a book about the emotion made me think twice

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2021-05-27 18:00:08

Take Alan Markovitz. When his ex-wife moved in with a new partner, he started to suspect the pair had been having an affair while they were still married. So, he buys the house next door and puts a 12ft bronze statue of a hand, middle finger raised, in his back yard. Lest darkness dim his dispatch, he buys a spotlight to keep it lit.

Spite also grows on the sterile surface of self-interest that coats the business world. When Ben Novack added an extension to his Fontainebleau hotel in Miami, it was designed to put his rival’s adjoining swimming pool into the shade – literally. The wall next to the pool was blank, save for a single window; that of Novack’s suite. He would look out with satisfaction at his shadow.

On the surface, spite seems to have little to commend it. It also appears a petty phenomenon, with little wider significance. Yet as I delved into the spiteful side of our nature for a recent book, it turned out to be more dangerous than I thought, more common than I suspected, but not without an upside. Spite lies within us, waiting for the latch to be lifted. We may as well hack it for useful ends.

Spite, in its strongest sense, involves harming another person while also harming oneself. Spite sinks all ships. It stands in stark contrast to the win-win cooperative behaviors said to be our species’ superpower. Other creatures cooperate with each other but tend to do so only with close relatives; humans will cooperate with anyone. This has allowed us, for good or for ill, to dominate this planet. If a rogue primatologist ever teaches chimps to cooperate as we do, it won’t be long before we are cursing on our knees in the surf.

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