SCHADENFREUDE: The Secret of Malicious Joy

 

Schadenfreude (/ˈʃɑːdənfrɔɪdə/; is a German term which means; the experience of pleasure, joy, or self-satisfaction that comes from getting to know about or witnessing the troubles, failures, or humiliation of another. Schadenfreude is a complicated emotion where, instead of feeling sympathy, one takes satisfaction from looking at a persons' misfortune. This emotion is displayed more in kids than adults. However, adults also revel in schadenfreude, even though usually they disguise it. Schadenfreude is a compound of Schaden, "damage, harm", and Freude, "joy". The German word was first cited in English texts in 1852 and 1867. Researchers have observed that there are 3 driving forces behind schadenfreude: aggression, social justice, and rivalry.

Schadenfreude can be both intentional and unintentional, but it almost always involves some degree of malicious joy. People who are ‘schadenfreudic’ enjoy watching others suffer, regardless of whether they have actually caused the suffering. Schadenfreude is often seen as an evil emotion because it leads people to feel pleasure from another person’s sorrowful experience without necessarily feeling any remorse themselves. In fact, many people believe that schadenfreude has negative consequences on our relationships with other humans and even animals.

Schadenfreude often feels visceral, like a kick to the stomach. It may cause a sense of excitement or arousal, or it may evoke sadness or pity. It can make you feel glad or happy, but more often than not, it is pleasureful.

While most people generally associate schadenfreude with negative emotions, a few people actually enjoy feeling malicious joy. They may find pleasure in witnessing someone's suffering or humiliation, or in making them feel uncomfortable or unwelcome. They may feel guilty or enjoy the sense of power that comes with causing someone harm. While these people may be rare, they illustrate the full range of schadenfreude expression.

There are many reasons why people might feel Schadenfreude. Maybe the person being hurt is someone the person dislikes or has a rival relationship with. Maybe the person witnessing the suffering is happy because they are enjoying the misery of others. Whatever the reason, feeling Schadenfreude is often unpleasant.

Self-esteem has a negative relationship with the frequency and intensity of schadenfreude experienced by an individual; individuals with less self-esteem tend to experience schadenfreude more frequently and intensely.

It is hypothesized that this inverse relationship is mediated through the human psychological inclination to define and protect their self- and in-group- identity or self-conception.  Specifically, for someone with high self-esteem, seeing another person fail may still bring them a small (but effectively negligible) surge of confidence because the observer's high self-esteem significantly lowers the threat they believe the visibly-failing human poses to their status or identity. Since this confident individual perceives that, regardless of circumstances, the successes and failures of the other person will have little impact on their own status or well-being, they have very little emotional investment in how the other person fares, be it positive or negative.

Conversely, for someone with low self-esteem, someone who is more successful poses a threat to their sense of self, and seeing this person fall can be a source of comfort because they perceive a relative improvement in their internal or in-group standing.

There is no easy answer when it comes to avoiding Schadenfreude. However, the best way to avoid feeling Schadenfreude is to try to stay emotionally neutral. That means not taking sides, and not investing too much emotion into the situation. By keeping our emotions in check, we can better focus on what is happening and make rational decisions.

Laughter might be a good medicine for the soul, laughing at someone else’ misfortune is not.