Taken together, the present research shows that even displaced
revenge can taste sweet and lead to a sense of re-established justice.
Victims' satisfaction with revenge may be interpreted as an indicator
that a certain goal has been achieved (see e.g., Funk et al., 2014;
Gollwitzer et al., 2011). Therefore, the next important step is to elucidate exactly what that goal is: Does displaced revenge against entitative
groups feel good because each member of the group is seen as a perpetrator? Does it feel good because it possibly deters future victimization?
Does it feel good because the message underlying vengeful reactions
(“don't mess with me”) is more likely to be spread in highly entitative
groups? In the following, we will elaborate on these explanations and
discuss potential mechanisms that can account for the effect we found.