A version of this review previously appeared in Shelf Awareness and has been republished here with permission.

A "strong" definition of the word spite, an act "where you harm another person and harm yourself in the process," does not leave much room for positivity. Yet the subtitle of Simon McCarthy-Jones's fascinating new work, Spite: The Upside of Your Dark Side, more than hints at how spite can be a constructive force. An associate professor of psychology and neuropsychology at Dublin's Trinity College, McCarthy-Jones has multiple degrees, papers and books to support his ideas about spite. That doesn't mean he declines the use of cinema's Terminator or Batman for occasional help explaining them.

Spite "runs deep," found in ancient myth and folklore, and most of us are familiar with its negative connotations. Yet if spite has no purpose since everyone loses, why was it not weeded out by natural selection long ago? McCarthy-Jones uses plain language, movies, humor and several economic "games" to "shine a light" on what he convincingly puts forth as an important tool for preventing injustice.

In the Ultimatum Game, player one is told player two in the room next door has $10 to share as they see fit. Player one can accept or reject player two's offer, but a rejection means both players get nothing. This seemingly simple game and its variations (the Dictator Game, the Joy of Destruction Game, etc.) are used ingeniously by McCarthy-Jones to explain both valid and improbable human behaviors, including voting against one's own best interests. Entertaining and illuminating, Spite explains how a society that depends on cooperation requires spite to thrive.

Spite: The Upside of Your Dark Side by Simon McCarthy-Jones tells us why spite can actually be a good thing, even though it probably doesn’t seem like it could be.

An act is considered spiteful if it involves harming another person, but in doing so, also harming (or potentially harming) oneself. Spite causes us to go against what would, at least in the short-term, be in our own best-interests. This has posed challenges for economists and their notion of homo economicus, who acts rationally in their own self-interest.

The author points out that at least someone who’s being selfish can be reasoned with; “What do you say to a spiteful person who values your suffering more than their own well-being?”

Much of the book refers to research conducted using the “Ultimate Game.” In this game, people are paired and assigned a pot of money. It’s up to one person to decide how to divide the money and then make an offer to the second person. The second person can either accept the offer, or they can essentially say bite me, and neither of them gets any money.

The second person is always better off taking the money, because some money is better than none. But depending on the perceived fairness of the first person’s offer, the allure of the bite me can be very strong. When there is a $10 pot and the first person offers the second $2 or less (thus keeping $8 or more for themselves), about half of people will reject the offer even though it means they get diddly squat.

The author gives some quite extreme examples, including people killing themselves and their children. Perhaps most extreme, albeit probably more complicated than just spite, was that towards the end of WWII, Hitler had the choice of diverting trains to resupply German troops getting their butts kicked on the Eastern Front, or continue using those trains to send Jews to extermination camps. He went with the second option, to Germany’s military detriment.

The book talks about differences in spitefulness based on cultural views around fairness, sharing, and deservedness. Personality also has an impact, and the dark triad of personality traits (psychopathy, narcissism, and Machiavellianism) is associated with a higher tendency towards spitefulness.

Punishing unfairness activates our brain’s pleasure circuits. When faced with injustice, “our brains not only push us down the road of spite; they clear all traffic in the way.” When anger and moral outrage get involved, it can push us into a cutting off your nose to spite your face type of situation where the only one who actually gets hurt is you.

The book explores why spite was preserved through evolution, and the role it might have on a broader social level in enforcing social expectations around fairness. Even kids will give up candy to spite someone, so that’s got to be pretty deeply rooted!

The author offers an interesting argument for the potential role of spite in Hillary Clinton’s loss in the 2016 US presidential election, as well as the outcome of the Brexit vote. There’s also a discussion of the role of spite in terrorism.

And of course, if we’re going to talk about spite, social media must have a seat at the table. The author writes, “If a Machiavellian mind set out to make spite flow, it could not have done better than create social networks. They decrease the cost of spite and multiply its benefits. Social media creates a perfect storm for spite. Online anonymity cuts a crucial real-world brake on spite. It eliminates the threat of retaliation. Released from this fear, people freely aim counterdominant spite at those who have more status or resources.”

This makes for a great read for anyone who’s fascinated by psychology and how we strange humans work. I found that some of the examples given of Ultimate Game research started to get a bit repetitive, but the book picked up steam again towards the end with its discussion of present-day social issues. Overall, it was a really interesting read.




I received a reviewer copy from the publisher through Netgalley.

This book started off as interesting as any thriller but soon I found myself mired in discussions about academic papers, which I am sure will be extremely interesting to someone who is in academia. Not for the general reader, I am afraid.

This book is super easy to read for being a nonfiction piece on a psychological phenomenon. There's a lot of things you don't realize are spiteful or an act of spite. I found it informational but not a difficult-to-understand analysis of spite. It's interesting to see how spite can have its pros and cons and there are times where spite could be a good thing for you. When someone thinks of spite they usually give it a negative connotation. Spite, like so many other psychological manifestations can have a positive and negative usage.

Thank you Netgalley and Publishers for the free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is a preview of a soon to be released book, received for an unbiased review on NetGallery. Despite its off-putting cover picture, I really enjoyed reading this book, and found myself finishing it in one evening.
It's non-fiction, well-written and it explains so much in a clear way. Using various scenarios, it looks at who is spiteful to whom, and why we act spitefully towards others, how there are different kinds of spite, and that the level of seratonin affected whether someone acted spitefully in a given situation or not. (Lower seratonin levels meant more spiteful behavior).

Quote: "When another takes our share or harms our status, anger and disgust ensue. Empathy rolls back, and we see the other as less human. We inflict a cost on them, and it feels good. But we can't admit this to ourselves. We deceive ourselves into thinking we are acting to teach, deter, or reform the unfair. But the reality is that we just want to harm them. This is the how of spite."

I enjoyed it and would recommend to others.

Absorbing, accessible, grippingly relevant and (being myself familiar with much of the relevant literature) well-researched, synthesizing and unifying a wide range of disciplinary perspectives -- from psychology, evolutionary biology, game theory, anthropology, history, political science, literature and more -- on this often beguiling but human, all-too-human emotion. Highly recommend.

The author has a very accessible and easily understandable writing style that hooks the reader in reading more. However, I think this book drags a lot for my liking, and as someone who likes directness in what I'm reading, this isn't just it. I can still see this being enjoyed by other readers, though.

A de-spiteful-full book which is actually an expose on spite. It's an eye-opener for me as the last time I openly came face to face with spite was at school (yes, schoolgirl who hit people with her umbrella, you).

The book has awakened my attention to the fact that spite seems to be a default response for many people - unless they are aware of it and strive to master it. Just like the crowd effect where people stare at a victim until someone who knows about the crowd effect breaks the spell.

I'm still reading so I'll put a final review on Amazon. I will also finish it - to spite my desire to not do so....!

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of Spite.

I was really excited when my request was approved because I'm a spiteful person, or so I've been told.

Also, this cover is great!

The author has done copious research on this little known characteristic.

What is spite? What is it good for? Why do humans do it more than animals?

If spite is so bad for you, why has it endured for millennia?

Turns out spite isn't bad for you. Well, not entirely.

As with most things in life; good food, good wine...spite can be good for you, depending on how you use it, what your circumstances are and what your place in your family and society currently stand.

The author demonstrates through recounting comprehensive studies done on the subject, interesting test results and a few words of wisdom from some of the world's famous literary authors.

The writing is good and flows, though after awhile I grew tired of reading about so many case studies and experiments. I was more interested in the psychological/social aspects of why we spite and there is plenty of background information on that.

And, yes, more case studies. One of particular note: the 2016 election and that made for fascinating reading.

In conclusion, we need to learn to wield spite positively, to use it to help our world, our planet, and the community. Otherwise, spite fosters madness and there's enough of that in the world right now.

You've Heard Of The Imitation Game. Meet The Ultimatum Game. McCarthy-Jones does a phenomenal job in this text of analyzing what exactly spite - which he defines as a behavior that harms both oneself and the other - is, why it is seemingly necessary for human advancement, how it seems to have come to be, and even some of the biological bases of the behavior. In the process, he gives some startling and many times counter-intuitive insights on how exactly spite manifests, often using a tool developed in the 1970s called The Ultimatum Game as the basis of the science. Both a fascinating and disturbing book, this could potentially provide saavy operators yet more ways to control the masses in ways that most wouldn't even realize they are being controlled - and yet by exposing these methods to the masses in question, gives us ever more effective tools to question the propaganda we are so incessantly bombarded with through so many modern communication channels. Very much recommended.