schadenfreude

schadenfreude, the emotional experience of pleasure in response to another’s misfortune. Schadenfreude is a German word that combines Schaden, which means “damage,” and Freude, which means “joy.” The concept is common to people across cultures, but some languages do have comparable words. It has gained attention with the idea that social media use may increase feelings or expressions of this emotion, perhaps as a result of the dehumanization that occurs when interacting through screens on computers and mobile devices.

Characteristics

Psychologists describe schadenfreude as having variants based on context and motivation. For example, some psychologists describe three categories of context for schadenfreude: justice, rivalry, and aggression. These contexts correlate with three distinct motivations: social justice, self-evaluation, and social identity. In the context of justice, people feel pleasure when they observe punishment in which someone gets what they deserve. In the context of rivalry, people feel pleasure when they compare themselves to one who suffers a negative event. In the context of aggression, a person feels pleasure when a member of an out-group, such as a rival sports team or political party, suffers a negative event, which solidifies the in-group member’s social identity.

Other psychologists have described schadenfreude with four context categories: aversion, injustice, identification, and compensation. With aversion, there is first a feeling of dislike toward another person, and when that person experiences misfortune, one feels pleasure. With injustice, a person feels pleasure when observing a deserved punishment. With identification, a rival’s loss boosts one’s social identity. With compensation, one’s own misfortune occurs first, and when another person experiences the same misfortune, one feels pleasure.

The link between schadenfreude and empathy is an ongoing topic of study. Psychologists note that schadenfreude occurs when empathy is absent, such as when one can dehumanize the person experiencing misfortune. With empathy, we feel bad for this person, as we would feel with our own personal misfortune. However, with dehumanization, empathy erodes and schadenfreude can more easily occur.

Neural mechanisms and individual differences

Neurobiologists have identified areas of brain activity that relate to schadenfreude and distinguish it from related emotions. Imagery gathered from functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) shows that the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), which is located in the medial surfaces between the brain’s hemispheres and links the limbic system with the prefrontal cortex, is activated when people feel envy. This area is also associated with conflict and social pain, and it is activated in situations in which a person’s sports team loses. However, when people reported schadenfreude in response to an envied person’s misfortune or a rival team’s loss, the ventral striatum (the part of the brain located just behind the ears and associated with reward) was activated. Another study found that areas of the brain related to social cognition were similarly active during empathy and schadenfreude, but with schadenfreude the nucleus accumbens (which is located within the ventral striatum) was more active. Furthermore, patients with an impaired ventral striatum were shown to have experienced lower levels of schadenfreude.

Schadenfreude has been shown to occur in people as young as two years old, and nearly everyone can experience it to some degree throughout their lives. However, there are individual differences. It has been found to be more active in people with low self-esteem. The emotion appears to provide an opportunity to enhance self-evaluation by means of a downward social comparison between the subject and another. This emotion is also active in people with a “just-world belief,” who are extremely focused on the importance of justice, and these people can experience schadenfreude when justice is served to those viewed as unjust.

The intensity of schadenfreude can become extreme and problematic in people with low empathy or those with the ability to dehumanize others, the latter of which is often associated with the Dark Triad conditions of psychopathy (lack of empathy and behaviour control), narcissism (self-centredness and arrogant thinking), and Machiavellianism (power seeking through the use of cunning and manipulation). Psychologists are exploring the connection between schadenfreude and Dark Triad traits. People with psychopathy in particular can derive pleasure from the pain of others, with a complete lack of empathy that can overlap with a sadistic profile, in which someone feels joy from inflicting pain upon others. Research shows that the intensity of schadenfreude experienced correlates with the degree of Dark Triad traits and sadistic tendencies.

Role of social media

The role of schadenfreude in online behaviour is of interest to psychologists, politicians, and the advertising industry. The presence of schadenfreude in online behaviour is well documented, with people who report low self-esteem spending more time rewarded by looking for stories of other peoples’ failures. One factor may be the release from empathy due to the barrier screens provide from facing other people in person. Also, the ability to quickly assess in-group and out-group distinctions based on social media cues is thought to increase the schadenfreude response to social media posts of those deemed dissimilar and stemming from a different social group. Schadenfreude online impacts behaviours such as the spread of political stories and consumer decisions. For example, one study found that social media denigrating competitive brands had a positive impact on intent to purchase a preferred brand.