Schadenfreude

Every week, millions of British television viewers tune in to a regular Saturday

night show: ‘You’ve Been Framed.’ The programme involves viewers sending in
their own ‘hilarious’ video clips of supposedly funny incidents. Many of these
videos involve people getting hurt in a number of different situations (e.g. roofs
falling in, being attacked by animals or car crashes). Many of these incidents end
up with the subject being badly injured (a part which is not shown on TV) and
despite the fact that the viewers know this, we continue to watch and laugh at
the people sustaining these injuries.

The reason that ‘You’ve Been Framed’ is such a hit is that it invokes the feeling of
schadenfreude. Schadenfreude means to feel satisfaction or pleasure at the
misfortune of others and it is an emotion that we all feel, to varying degrees.
However, schadenfreude is not necessarily an emotion that we feel individually,
and when experienced by large groups or even entire nations it can become
much more powerful and even lead to violence and war.

A very common example of schadenfreude is where we have no involvement in

the incident and the subject’s misfortune will not benefit us in any way. For
example, I was walking along the street one day with some friends when we saw
another group not far away. One member of the group was showing off, jumping
about etc. so when he slipped and fell, we laughed at his misfortune and walked
off. Looking back at the incident, I tried to work out what was funny about it. He
may have been badly injured by the fall and doubtlessly his ‘friends’ would have
mocked and jeered at him about him rather than see if he was alright. Perhaps
the reason we take pleasure in others’ misfortune is that we all suffer from some
self-doubt and because of this, we can temporarily forget about our self-doubt
through seeing someone else fail instead of us.

Recent investigations into schadenfreude have suggested that it is a human trait

that is wired into us at birth. A recent study by Hidehiko Takahashi of Japan’s
National Institute of Radiological Sciences suggests that the experience of seeing
another human’s misfortunes arouses senses of pleasure in the brain, similar to
that of eating a nice meal. According to the study, feeling schadenfreude activates
the part of the brain that processes rewards and generally feeling good. They
concluded that ‘Thinking bad thoughts can feel good.’ Perhaps then,
schadenfreude is something that we as humans just cannot avoid.

As I said earlier, schadenfreude is not just something that we feel as individuals;

it can be a shared emotion that can be felt by large crowds or groups at the same
time. A common example of how schadenfreude can be felt from one group
towards another is between groups of sports fans. When I was younger I
followed football, and my team in particular, very closely. I remember very
clearly the elation I felt when rival teams to my own lost, whether or not it would
have a direct influence on my own team. Through supporting my team, I had
learnt subconsciously that maybe the rival team deserved to lose just because
they were not on my side. Although this kind of thinking is not particularly
threatening at this level, when we scale it up to political parties or even whole
countries, the situation can become much more dangerous. If a government
believes that another country deserves to suffer just because they do not agree,
violence and potentially war could break out, just as fights between fans of
football teams do.

One of the most public and effective studies into group schadenfreude was by
Derren Brown in his Channel 4 television show, ‘The Gameshow’ (October 2011).
In the experiment, the studio audience made decisions that would affect the life
of a (supposedly) unknowing subject. The audience would vote between giving
the subject a positive experience that would improve his life or a negative
experience (being locked up by police, being fired from his job etc.). In every
case, the audience chose the negative experience and could be seen enjoying
watching him suffer. As the programme went on, the feeling of schadenfreude led
the audience to become more like a mob; enjoying making decisions that would
really ruin the subject’s life (destroying his flat, being kidnapped). The incredibly
powerful experience of group schadenfreude eventually led to the subject
supposedly being killed before it was revealed to the audience that the true
subjects of the experiment had been themselves with actors playing all the other
parts.

Watching the programme for the first time strongly affected me as I realised just
how much pleasure humans could get from the misfortune of someone else and
to what extent those feelings could develop - to the extent of killing someone.

All of us take some pleasure in the failings of others; it would be inhuman not to.
But schadenfreude is a dangerous emotional state that can have terribly negative
effects on all of us, as Derren Brown’s experiment has shown. Having had direct
personal experiences with schadenfreude, I have realised that it is not something
to be proud of, but must instead be addressed. Perhaps the easiest way to reduce
feelings of schadenfreude within ourselves is to simply ask ourselves why we are
laughing when such an incident occurs. What would we want ourselves to feel?

Findlay Spence

(810 Words)
Bibliography

Anthes, Emily (2 December 2010). Their Pain, Our Gain: Why Schadenfreude is
Best Enjoyed in Groups – scientificamerican.com

Ben-Zeev, Aaron (30 January 2009). Why Are We Pleased With Others’
Misfortune? – Psychology Today

Brain, Marshall (9 December 2010). How Schadenfreude Works - How Stuff

Works Blogs

Brown, Derren (2 February 2012). The Science of Schadenfreude –

derrenbrown.co.uk

Brown, Derren (8 October 2011). “The Gameshow”

Silver, Jonathan (23 March 2009). I Am So Sorry for your Misfortune, Not –
Journal Watch (Psychiatry)