Week 11, Post 3
In chapter 10, Too Much Emotions, the definition of an appeal to spite is the hope of revenge, is invariably rejected as bad by some people on moral grounds. An appeal to spite occurs when a person's honor is more important than lending a helping hand. Usually, one's action is not reciprocated and is acceptable in his or her own culture.
Alex: Are you moving out of the apartment by yourself?
Monica: Yes, can you help me move my furniture out of my apartment?
Alex: Yeah, of course.
Melanie: (discreetly) Why are you helping her move? She did not help you paint your walls last month.
The argument is Alex should not help Monica move her furniture because she did not help him paint. Her action was not reciprocated therefore, Alex does not have to help her as well. It was not even even exchange although Alex was not out for revenge, Melanie thought it was unfair. The premise is Alex should not help anyone who is not willing to help him out.
Appeal to spite seems to be a natural process in people. I see it often when it's on a person's birthday or when I'm playing sports that require a team to be split up, especially when there are team captains picking their teammates.
ReplyDeleteFor example, during the summer of 2010, I would play ultimate Frisbee with a group of 15 to 20 of my friends and sometimes we would have two people who wanted to be a team captain and pick the players. The team captains would change at each new game round. When Friend A was not selected by Team Captain A in the first round of ultimate frisbee, they decided, out of spite, when they became captain that they would not select the former Team Captain A to be on their team.
Friend A was just acting bitter against Team Captain A because they did not select them to be on their team. Yet, this is not a fair reason for Friend A to spitefully not pick former Team Captain A to be on their team.