schadenfreude
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What does the word 'schadenfreude' mean?
Schadenfreude is a German word that describes the emotion of experiencing pleasure at another person's misfortune. The word combines Schaden, meaning "damage," and Freude, meaning "joy".
Psychologists have identified different variants of schadenfreude based on context and motivation, such as social justice, self-evaluation, and social identity. Neurobiologists have also found links between schadenfreude and brain activity, observing that the ventral striatum (associated with reward) activates when people feel schadenfreude. While nearly everyone experiences schadenfreude to some degree, it is more common in people with low self-esteem.
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Where does the term 'schadenfreude' come from?
The term "schadenfreude" comes from German. It combines Schaden ("damage") and Freude ("joy") to describe the enjoyment derived from the troubles of others.
The word was already in use in Germany in the mid-1700s and was being discussed by philosophers like Schopenhauer, Kant, and Nietzsche. It appeared in English by the mid-1800s, gaining popularity after being featured in a 1991 episode of The Simpsons, where Lisa explains the term to Homer.
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Why do people sometimes feel happy when others make mistakes or have bad luck?
Schadenfreude is a German term for the pleasure one feels at another's misfortune. Psychologists have identified different contexts that correlate with distinct motivations for schadenfreude, such as justice, rivalry, and aggression. In the context of justice, people may feel pleasure when they see someone getting what they deserve. In rivalry, pleasure arises when comparing oneself to someone experiencing a negative event. Aggression can cause a person to feel pleasure when an out-group member suffers, solidifying the in-group member’s social identity.
Schadenfreude can occur in people as young as two years old and is more common in people with low self-esteem. Lacking empathy or dehumanizing others can intensify schadenfreude, which is often associated with psychopathy, narcissism, and Machiavellianism. Social media may also increase feelings of schadenfreude because of the release from empathy that screens provide.
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How is schadenfreude different from sympathy or empathy?
Schadenfreude is taking pleasure in another's misfortune. Sympathy is feeling sorrow for someone else's suffering, while empathy is understanding their feelings by imagining oneself in their place. Schadenfreude arises from the absence of empathy, especially when one dehumanizes the person experiencing misfortune.
Psychologists have identified different categories of schadenfreude based on context, such as justice, rivalry, and aggression. These contexts correlate with motivations like social justice, self-evaluation, and social identity. Neurobiologists have also found that schadenfreude activates different areas of the brain than empathy.
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Can schadenfreude affect friendships or social relationships?
Yes, schadenfreude, the experience of pleasure at another's misfortune, can affect friendships and social relationships.
Psychologists have found that schadenfreude is more common in those with low self-esteem, as it provides an opportunity to enhance self-evaluation through social comparison. The absence of empathy and the ability to dehumanize others can intensify schadenfreude, which can be problematic. Social media may also increase feelings of schadenfreude because interacting through screens can foster dehumanization.
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How do psychologists study schadenfreude and what have they discovered about it?
Psychologists study schadenfreude, or pleasure at another's misfortune, by examining its contexts, motivations, and links to empathy. Studies show that schadenfreude has associations with justice, rivalry, and aggression and is tied to motivations like social justice, self-evaluation, and social identity.
Neuroimaging, using fMRI, reveals that the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) activates with envy, while the ventral striatum, linked to reward, activates with schadenfreude. Researchers have observed that schadenfreude can occur as early as two years old and is more common in individuals with low self-esteem. The role of social media in online behavior is also of interest, as low self-esteem is linked to spending more time looking for stories of other people’s failures.
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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.
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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.
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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.