Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

Click here to submit your manuscript to SPPS

SAGETRACK

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
Personality and Social Psychology Review
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Baumeister, R. F.
Right arrow Articles by Campbell, W. K.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Baumeister, R. F.
Right arrow Articles by Campbell, W. K.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

The Intrinsic Appeal of Evil: Sadism, Sensational Thrills, and Threatened Egotism

Roy F. Baumeister

W. Keith Campbell

Department of Psychology, Case Western Reserve University

Three main sources of intrinsic appeal and satisfaction from performing violent acts are described. First, sadism involves deriving pleasure directly from the suffering of the victim. An opponent-process model is suggested. Second, the quest for thrilling sensations to escapefrom boredom can produce violent acts, including many in which the harmful consequences were not intended. Third, threatened egotism entails that one 's favorable view of self (or public image) has been attacked, and violent responses are directed toward the source of this attack. Relevant individual differences (respectively, low guilt, high sensation seeking, and narcissism) moderate these patterns. Analyzing the intrinsic appeal of evil acts is a useful complement to analyzing situational determinants of violence.

Personality and Social Psychology Review, Vol. 3, No. 3, 210-221 (1999)
DOI: 10.1207/s15327957pspr0303_4
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 EthnographyHome page
F. Sutterluty
The genesis of violent careers
Ethnography, September 1, 2007; 8(3): 267 - 296.
[Abstract] [PDF]

Home page
 Pers Soc Psychol RevHome page
J. M. Darley
Methods for the Study of Evil-Doing Actions
Personality and Social Psychology Review, August 1, 1999; 3(3): 269 - 275.
[Abstract] [PDF]