Schadenfreude : Understanding Pleasure at the Misfortune of Others

When someone suffers a mishap, a setback or a downfall, we sometimes find ourselves experiencing schadenfreude - an emotion defined as deriving pleasure from another's misfortune. Schadenfreude is a common experience and an emotion which is seemingly inherent to social being. This book offers a comprehensive summary of current theoretical and empirical work on schadenfreude from psychological, philosophical and other scientific perspectives. The chapters explore justice as an underlying motive for schadenfreude, and the role played by social comparison processes and envy in evoking pleasure at the misfortunes of others in interpersonal relations. Schadenfreude is also described as a common phenomenon in intergroup relations. This is a compelling volume on a fascinating subject matter that aims to increase our understanding of the nature of this emotion and the role it plays in social relations. Cover 1 Half-title page 3 Title page 5 Copyright page 6 Contents 7 Figures and tables 10 Contributors 12 1 Introduction to schadenfreude 15 Part I Schadenfreude as a justice-based emotion 29 2 Morality and schadenfreude 31 3 Deservingness and schadenfreude 43 4 Hypocrisy and schadenfreude 72 Part II Schadenfreude as a comparison-based emotion 89 5 The personal comparative concern in schadenfreude 91 6 Empirical challenges to understanding the role of envy in schadenfreude 105 7 Malicious envy and schadenfreude 124 8 Schadenfreude and consumer behavior 132 9 Striving for positive self-evaluation as a motive for schadenfreude 145 Part III Schadenfreude as an intergroup phenomenon 163 10 Stereotypes and schadenfreude 165 11 Schadenfreude in sports and politics: a social identity perspective 184 12 Intergroup rivalry and schadenfreude 200 13 Situating schadenfreude in social relations 214 Part IV Schadenfreude and related phenomena 231 14 Schadenfreude and laughter 233 15 Schadenfreude and the desire for vengeance 241 16 Schadenfreude and pouting 256 Part V Schadenfreude in society, language,and literature 271 17 Schadenfreude and social life: a comparative perspective on the expression and regulation of mirth at the expense of others 273 18 Tracing down schadenfreude in spontaneous interaction: evidence from corpus linguistics 289 19 “Smile not, however, I venture to repeat”: schadenfreude in nineteenth-century American literature 306 20 Schadenfreude, concluding notes 318 Index 326 When someone suffers a mishap, a setback or a downfall, we sometimes find ourselves experiencing schadenfreude - an emotion defined as deriving pleasure from another's misfortune. Schadenfreude is a common experience and an emotion which is seemingly inherent to social being. This book offers a comprehensive summary of current theoretical and empirical work on schadenfreude from psychological, philosophical and other scientific perspectives. The chapters explore justice as an underlying motive for schadenfreude and the role social comparison processes and envy play in evoking pleasure at the misfortunes of others in interpersonal relations. Schadenfreude is also described as a common phenomenon in intergroup relations. This is a compelling volume on a fascinating subject matter that aims to increase our understanding of the nature of this emotion and the role it plays in social relations When and why do we derive pleasure from other people's misfortune? This book provides a comprehensive summary of current theoretical and empirical work on schadenfreude from psychological, philosophical and other scientific perspectives. It increases our understanding of the nature of this emotion and the role it plays in social relations. Why do we often enjoy other people's misfortune? This book provides a comprehensive summary of research on the emotion schadenfreude