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The definition of spite is a desire to harm or anger someone, especially if you feel you've been mistreated in some way.

It's common across many social groups and cultures, and now scientists believe that genetics may play a role in this desire.

A team of psychologists, biologists and mathematicians has discovered that the more similar a person is within a group, the more spiteful they are to outsiders. 

A team of psychologists, biologists and mathematicians has discovered that the more similar a person is within a group, the more spiteful they are to outsiders - and this may have developed to protect the structure, and ultimately the genetics, of a social community

And this may have developed to protect the structure, and ultimately the genetics, of a social community.

The model was developed by researchers D.B Krupp and Peter Taylor at Queen's and the One Earth Future Foundation. 

They found that individuals who appear very different from most others in a group will evolve to be altruistic towards similar partners, and only slightly spiteful to those who are dissimilar to them.

However, individuals who appear very similar to the rest of a group will evolve to be only slightly altruistic to similar partners but very spiteful to dissimilar individuals, often going to extreme lengths to hurt them. 

Taken together, individuals with 'common' and 'rare' appearances may treat each other very differently.

'Similar individuals are more likely to share copies of each other's genes and dissimilar individuals are less likely to. 

'As a consequence, evolutionary theory predicts that organisms will often discriminate, because helping similar partners and harming dissimilar ones increase the fraction of the discriminating party's genes in future generations,' said Dr. Krupp.

This finding is a new twist on the established evolutionary theory, and could help explain racism and corresponding forms of prejudice in humans and other species.

The new theoretical model was developed using inclusive fitness theory. 

The spite model (stock image) was developed using inclusive fitness theory -  a biological framework that looks at how an organism's behaviour affects its own reproductive success, as well as that of its neighbours. The finding could help explain racism and corresponding forms of prejudice in humans and other species

This is a biological framework that looks at how an organism's behaviour affects its own reproductive success as well as that of its neighbours.

'We tend to think of individuals as caring only about what another individual looks, smells or sounds like, but our model shows that the appearance of surrounding neighbours matters tremendously, too,' continued Dr. Krupp. 

'This work predicts extreme differences in behaviour between what we call 'common' and 'rare' types of individuals - those that are similar or dissimilar to their neighbours.'