A new study from Baruch College, City University of New York, USA (CUNY) concluded that you're not doing yourself any favors by responding to rude people or people who make you angry on the net or IRL.
Participants were asked to ignore or converse with highly likeable (polite and egalitarian) or highly unlikeable (rude and bigoted) acquaintance. They then completed a task in which good performance hinged on successful thought regulation. Study 1 revealed that participants performed worse in the self-regulatory task after conversing with (compared to ignoring) the unlikeable person but performed slightly better after conversing with (compared to ignoring) the likeable person. Study 2 replicated this crossover interaction using an alternative measure of self-regulation. The findings suggest that the use of silent treatment may allow one to conserve regulatory resources during aversive social interactions.
Sure it can be difficult to overcome our natural impulse to engage with a comment like: “Jesus loves you, but everyone else thinks you're an asshole”, when someone says something that triggers you. But ignoring them is the only way.