“In-group love and out-group hate?” A cross cultural study on customers' revenge, avoidance and forgiveness behaviors

Based on Allport (1954) paradigm of “in-group love and out-group hate”, this research posits that interpersonal conflicts are more likely to be pursued when allocentric customers are faced with an out-group service employee, leading to a confrontational response such as revenge. However, if the service employee is from the in-group, the allocentrism trait tends to weigh against the pursuit of any conflict and therefore may increase the tendency of forgiveness or at least avoidance. Conversely, idiocentric customers are more likely to engage in confrontational tactics regardless the group affiliation of the service employee, given that idiocentrics make little distinction between in-group and out-group members.