Schadenfreude: Why We Feel Happiness Seeing Other People Suffer

“To see others suffer does one good. This is a hard saying, but a mighty, human, all-too-human principle.”

-Friedrich Nietzsche

There is not a single word in the English language that can describe the concept of Schadenfreude, which is a German word and translates to damage-joy. It basically describes the feeling of joy a person feels at someone else’s misfortune.

Many other languages do have words that describe this particular feeling. For example, the Japanese have this phrase, “他人の不幸は蜂蜜のように味がする” which means that the misfortune of others tastes like honey, a phrase that sits well as far as the meaning of Schadenfreude is concerned.

However, the English language refuses to recognize this emotion which is a commonly occurring emotion in human beings.

Schadenfreude should not be confused with gloating. As when a person gloats, the pleasure being expressed is not necessarily dependent upon someone’s hardship or failure which often makes it completely innocent, whilst Schadenfreude is mostly malicious.

Three-Part Model of Schadenfreude

The fact to remember about this idea is that there are three main types of driving motivation behind Schadenfreude.

1. Aggression-based Schadenfreude comes into play when there is a competition between two separate groups. The joy that is felt by the in-groups when the competing group suffers some sort of failure arises because a person would want their own group to succeed in a competition. The interesting point is that with this type of Schadenfreude, members of the group would feel malicious joy at the failures of the competing group even if they are not in the competition themselves. A classic example of aggression-based Schadenfreude is when India was defeated in the semi-finals of the Cricket World Cup, 2019, Pakistanis everywhere celebrated in their own manner even though the Pakistani cricket team had been out of running for some time.
2. Rivalry-based Schadenfreude is mostly observed at an individual level when a person wishes to be more successful and unique from other people. It can be seen in interpersonal relationships and when someone else experiences a setback of any sort, it brings pleasure as it directly boosts the person’s self-image and self-esteem. The reason behind this kind of joy is purely rivalry-based and comes about owing to the fact that the person believes that failure of the next person would increase chances of their own success.
3. Justice-based Schadenfreude comes from witnessing an immoral behavior getting the punishment it deserves. It springs up when a bad action, that had no repercussions, gets the justice it deserves. It is brought about by the fulfillment of the desire to see a bad person getting harmed in some way. This type is felt by people all over the world when they see a murderer, robber, con artist, etc. get served a justified sentence. Many comedians and talk show hosts these days exhibit justice-based Schadenfreude when they comment on corrupt politicians and rejoice at their downfall. The concept of reality TV is mainly based on this phenomenon where the viewers get to enjoy the embarrassments, failures, heartbreaks, and misfortunes of the stars of the particular show.

Self-esteem & Schadenfreude

The question that arises here is who is most predisposed to experience Schadenfreude? According to researches, people who experience Schadenfreude are the ones who have low self-esteem. When an individual’s own self-esteem is down, they tend to feel threatened by every other person around them in regards to the different aspects of their own life. The failures of others tend to spark joy in the individual as it makes them feel better about their own status in the society; if another whose social standing is better is failing, then the individual feels that they are not completely down in the dumps. People whose self-esteem is high tend to not feel Schadenfreude that frequently as they do not tend to look to others for validation of their own self.

Social comparison theory supports this research as it puts forward the idea that people tend to evaluate themselves by comparing others’ actions, achievements, and life events. During the evaluation, if they witness that a person who is better off is experiencing any sort of difficulty, they feel better about their own self-image and life.

For a long time, it was considered that Schadenfreude holds malicious tones but often there are feelings behind this particular emotion that spring from a place that is not malevolent at all. The people who do experience Schadenfreude frequently become aware that it is not a pretty color on them and they try to fight it off but in order to truly overcome it, they need to first evaluate the driving forces behind it. Once they are able to work on them, it will be possible for their Schadenfreude to come out less frequently. Read about colonial famine.