Impact of Responsibility for a Misfortune on Schadenfreude and Sympathy: Further Evidence

Abstract

ABSTRACT. The authors tested the hypothesis that the more individuals are responsible for their own misfortune, the more schadenfreude (i.e., pleasure derived from another's misfortune) and less sympathy the misfortune evokes in others. The results support the hypothesis, thereby providing further evidence for the role responsibility plays in emotional reactions to the misfortunes of others.Keywords: deservingness, emotion, responsibility, schadenfreude, sympathy WHEN BAD THINGS HAPPEN TO OTHER PEOPLE reactions can take several forms. In his seminal book The Psychology of Interpersonal Relations, Heider (1958) distinguished two possible emotional reactions of a person (P) to the misfortune of others (O). First, P can experience sympathy when a negative Replications and RefinementsUnder this heading are brief reports of studies providing data that substantiate, challenge, or refine what we think we know. These notes consist of a summary of the study's procedure and as many details about the results as space allows. Additional details concerning the results can be obtained by communicating directly with the author. Submissions to this section must provide a meaningful conceptual replication that extends the construct validity of the work.

Mortality Salience Increases Belief in a Just World but Not Schadenfreude in Response to a Natural Disaster Affecting a Religious Out-group

“…In the in-group target condition, the story described the destruction of a church in a tornado. Schadenfreude was measured by having participants rate, on a 7-point scale [1 (not at all) to 7 (very much)], the extent to which they felt happy, satisfied, pleased, sympathy, pity, sorry [21] and the extent to which they could not resist a smile and actually had to laugh a bit in response to the story [15]. Responses to the items sympathy, pity, and sorry were reversed scored before calculating an average schadenfreude score.…”

“…If the misfortune of culturally different others strengthens confidence in the validity of one's own cultural worldview and if such confidence is especially needed when thoughts of mortality are salient, then reminders of death should lead to positive emotional reactions when bad things happen to people with different and threatening belief systems. Previous research has shown that schadenfreude (malicious pleasure at the misfortune of others) is felt when bad things happen to politicians from rival political parties [13], national athletic rivals [14], and people who are perceived as deserving their misfortune [15]. Based on these findings, it seems that schadenfreude stems from in-group bias and the need to perceive the world as operating fairly.…”

The Impact of Deservingness on Schadenfreude and Sympathy: Further Evidence

“…But are high achievers always an easy prey for schadenfreude, or are there circumstances that mitigate this emotion when they fall from grace? Previous research has indicated that schadenfreude is attenuated when a misfortune is perceived as undeserved (Feather, 1994;Van Dijk, Goslinga, & Ouwerkerk, 2008;Van Dijk, Ouwerkerk, Goslinga, & Nieweg, 2005). According to Feather (2006), people's beliefs about deservingness depend on how they appraise the evaluative structure of action and outcome relations.…”

The face of schadenfreude: Differentiation of joy and schadenfreude by electromyography

“…Besides, control variables revealed that domain interest of participants was high, as well as the perceived rivalry between both soccer nations, the Dutch national soccer team was disliked and in general soccer players are highly responsible for penalty outcomes. And all these variables are known to boost schadenfreude (Hareli & Weiner, 2002;Leach et al, 2003;Van Dijk, Goslinga, & Ouwerkerk, 2008).…”