Rejoicing in Other People’s Misfortune May Be Biological, Study Finds

Amy Taylor October 31, 2013

Don’t blame yourself from feeling quite happy about other people’s misfortune. According to a new study by Princeton University, schadenfreude may actually be biological, and that who the misfortune befalls is a critical factor in how we react.

The researchers conducted four separate experiments to examine the reason behind schadenfreude. In one experiment, researchers monitored the cheek movements in order to find indicators of a smile whilst study participants looked at pictures of different kinds of people, such as drug addicts (indicative of disgust), elderly (indicative of pity), Americans (indicative of pride) and rich professionals (indicative of envy). They were told that each of these kinds of people had good, bad or neutral things happen to them, such as winning five dollars, getting soaked by a taxi, or using the restroom. Results showed that participants smiled more in response to negative events involving the rich professionals.

In the second experiment, the researchers looked at the brain scans of the participants using the functional magnetic resonance imaging machine, and compared them with self-report. Again, the subjects felt bad when positive events happened to the rich professionals, but felt good when negative events happened to them.

After two weeks, participants took a survey online where they were presented with a scenario of hurting someone (through electrical shocks) so the others could be spared. The researchers found that the subjects were more willing to shock someone they felt envious of.

In the last experiment, the research team assessed how rivalry might play a role in Schadenfreude. For this, they specifically picked participants who were big fans of the Boston Red Sox or New York Yankees baseball teams, and asked them to watch their teams and opponents score runs, make great plays, or strike out. Based on self-reports and fMRI scans, the researchers found that participants experienced pleasure when their teams did well.

“A lack of empathy is not always pathological. It’s a human response, and not everyone experiences this, but a significant portion does,” says lead author Mina Cikara, Ph.D., now an assistant professor at Carnegie Mellon University.

"A lack of empathy is not always pathological. It’s a human response, and not everyone experiences this, but a significant portion does," says Cikara. "We need to remember this in terms of everyday situations. If you think about the way workplaces and organizations are set up, for example, it raises an interesting question: Is competition the best way to get your employees to produce? It’s possible, in some circumstances, that competition is good. In other ways, people might be preoccupied with bringing other people down, and that’s not what an organization wants."

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Schadenfreude: Rejoicing In Rivals’ Misfortune May Be Biological, Study Suggests