Schadenfreude

• In Event: Complex Emotions in Media-Psychology Research

Abstract

Although empathic concerns often shape our emotions when someone else suffers a mishap, setback or downfall, we may sometimes experience a joyful feeling in reaction to other’s misfortune. The German language has coined the word Schadenfreude for this emotional reaction (a compound word of Schaden meaning ‘harm’ and Freude meaning ‘joy’). Nowadays a loanword in the English language, Schadenfreude is defined in the Oxford Dictionaries Online as “pleasure derived by someone from another person’s misfortune”. Based on disposition theory, communication scholars from have addressed this emotional reaction to understand experiences of passive audiences. However, I will argue that the passive and opportunistic nature of schadenfreude is often overemphasized, and that this specific emotion may also play an important role in behavior of more active users such as media selection, engaging in negative word-of-mouth, and connecting with specific others on social media.

Author

• Jaap W. Ouwerkerk, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam