Causes and Consequences of Schadenfreude and Sympathy: A Developmental Analysis

Abstract

Moral judgments and moral emotions are a ubiquitous feature of social interactions. Humans decide quickly and intuitively whether an action is morally right or wrong. Schadenfreude and sympathy, as emotional reactions to the misfortunes of others, are prototypical moral emotions. So far, however, little evidence exists concerning children’s understanding of schadenfreude. Within three studies, we investigated the experience of schadenfreude and sympathy among N = 364 children of different age groups. We interviewed the children while showing them picture stories. In the picture stories, we varied the behavior of the protagonist prior to a misfortune: (1) whether his behavior had been morally right or wrong, (2) whether the protagonist attained his goal, (3) whether the protagonist was responsible for the misfortune. In addition, in one study we varied (4) the emotional relationship of the interviewed children to the protagonist. Furthermore, we asked the children to decide whether they want to sit next to the protagonist or do him a favor. Results show that children experience sympathy as well as schadenfreude at the age of 4 years. Sympathy is more likely to arise when the protagonists of a story are likable, when these actors typically pursue morally positive goals, and if they are not responsible for their misfortune. In contrast, schadenfreude is more likely when the protagonist is disliked, when actors pursue immoral goals and if they are responsible for their misfortune. In addition, sympathy increases approach (helping behavior, sitting next to the agent and doing favors), whereas schadenfreude increases avoidance tendencies.

The role of severity and intentionality in the intensity of Schadenfreude attribution: A developmental study of Danish children

“…Likewise, the results on severity as a factor that modulates the emotional intensity of schadenfreude coincide with those obtained by Schindler et al . (), in which children were sensitive to the severity of the damage and, consequently, the schadenfreude intensity was lower for more severe damage than for less severe damage.…”

“…Similarly, the results are aligned with the thesis of Ben Ze'ev (1992) in which he posits that the intensity of schadenfreude can be mediated by whether the damage is severe compared to when it is non-severe. Likewise, the results on severity as a factor that modulates the emotional intensity of schadenfreude coincide with those obtained by Schindler et al (2015), in which children were sensitive to the severity of the damage and, consequently, the schadenfreude intensity was lower for more severe damage than for less severe damage.…”

“…Interestingly, when the protagonist had expressed a bad intention, 5‐year‐olds hardly differed in their intensity of schadenfreude compared to older children; hence, the happy victimizer phenomenon did not emerge. Finally, the study by Schindler, Körner, Bauer, Hadji and Rudolph () corroborates that schadenfreude is more intense when the agent who experiences damage held an immoral intention (e.g., hurting someone) than when there was no such intention. They also found that young children reported more schadenfreude than older children.…”

Aware and tuned to care: Children with better distress recognition and higher sympathy anticipate more guilt after harming others

“…Children who lacked sympathy reported lower levels of ethical guilt regardless of how well they recognized fear. This aligns with findings suggesting that those who lack sympathy for their victims are less likely to feel bad after violating others and may actually feel joy upon recognizing distress in them (Schindler, Körner, Bauer, Hadji, & Rudolph, ). In contrast, better fear recognition was more likely to be associated with heightened ethical guilt in children with higher sympathy.…”

The Everyday Moral Judge – Autobiographical Recollections of Moral Emotions

“…In contrast, schadenfreude feels joyful (as someone takes joy in the misfortune of others), at the same time, it feels very bad to be the target of schadenfreude [1]. Although these two are very complex emotion, children can feel and display schadenfreude and sympathy already at an age of about three to four years [24,25]. Sympathy is linked to prosocial actions [4] (for a summary, see [26]), whereas schadenfreude predicts absence of help-giving [24,25].…”