Falling from Grace

Schadenfreude and the Dark Side of Human Nature

Abstract

Previous research has shown that the experience of schadenfreude (pleasure derived from someone else’s misfortune) serves an adaptive value by alerting individuals of competing rivals or mating opportunities (Colyn & Gordon, 2013). The present study examined gender differences in the experience of schadenfreude towards a male and female celebrity in a sample of 203 undergraduate students. The findings show that women (n = 102) reported greater schadenfreude towards the female celebrity, whereas men (n = 101) reported more intense schadenfreude overall towards both the female and male celebrity. Furthermore, several predictors of schadenfreude were examined including empathy, envy, deservingness, and hostility. The results indicate that schadenfreude was correlated strongly with deservingness (r = .63) and weakly correlated with empathy (r = - .11). The findings from this study suggest that schadenfreude is a multi-determined emotion that can be evoked by many factors such as gender, social values, and an individual’s reaction towards the misfortune.

Discipline: Psychology Honours

Faculty Mentor: Dr. David Watson