We propose that, in electoral contexts, voters may experience a desire for vengeance, i.e., to "get even" with an entity, such as a political candidate, in response to a perceived wrongdoing. We draw on research from psychology and sociology to develop a theoretical framework for examining factors that may influence the extent to which voters exact revenge on political candidates with their voting behavior. Our experiments show that voters exact revenge on a perpetrator candidate. This process is mediated by damage to self-identity. We also show how making salient a shared affiliation with the perpetrator candidate can attenuate vengeful behavior
