Poster #191 - Getting Pleasure From Others’ Pain: Effects of Likability on Schadenfreude

• In Event: 3-206 - Poster Session 13
  In Poster Session: PS 13 Section - Social Cognition

Integrative Statement

Schadenfreude, or the tendency to take pleasure in others’ misfortune, is considered a discordant emotion due to its conflicting nature (i.e., provokes pleasure, but also discomfort; e.g., Heider, 1958) and therefore has important implications for children’s psychosocial adjustment. Although there is ample literature on the determinants of schadenfreude in adulthood (e.g., Smith, Powell, Combs, Schurtz, 2009), less is known about this emotion in childhood.
One determinant of schadenfreude is moral character. Specifically, 4- to 8-year-olds who heard about immoral intentions of story characters were more likely to report schadenfreude as seen in pleasure and decreased willingness to help the characters (Schulz, Rudolph, Tscharaktschiew, & Rudolph, 2013). Similarly, first-graders who were told about story characters who fulfilled immoral goals (e.g., hitting another child with a snowball) prior to experiencing misfortune were more likely to report schadenfreude than those who heard about characters who failed to fulfill these goals (Schindler, Körner, Bauer, Hadji, & Rudolph, 2015). This study builds on previous research by examining how 7- to 10-year-old participants’ “live” interactions with likable (i.e., nice), unlikable (i.e., mean), or neutral peers influenced participants’ experience of schadenfreude.
Ninety-two participants (25 7-year-olds, 20 8-year-olds, 24 9-year-olds, and 23 10-year-olds) were told that they would play a competitive computer game against a peer (who was in fact a confederate) in another room for a prize. As participants played, they either heard several comments from a likable peer (e.g., who stated that he/she wished that both players could win and that he/she would share the prize), an unlikable peer (e.g., who stated that he/she was going win and wouldn’t share the prize) or a neutral peer competitor (e.g., who simply stated that he/she was ready to play). Participants always won the game/prize. To assess schadenfreude, among other measures, participants were asked how much they wanted to laugh at the peer for losing (i.e. Laugh Question), using a scale ranging from 0-2 (not very much, a little, a lot).
An age (7-, 8-, 9- and 10-year-olds) x Condition (likable, unlikable, neutral) ANOVA was conducted on the Laugh Question. There was a significant condition effect, F (2, 80) = 3.56, p = .03; participants reported a greater desire to laugh in the unlikable (M = .63, SD = .88) than the likeable (M = .22, SD = .49) and neutral conditions (M = .29, SD = .53), which did not differ significantly from each other. Seven-year-olds (M = .72, SD = .79) were more likely than 8 (M = .20, SD = .52), 9- (M =.33, SD = .63), and 10-year-olds (M = .29, SD = .53) to report a desire to laugh.
These findings reveal that trait-like information influences children’s reports of schadenfreude, but also that schadenfreude is limited and decreases with age, consistent with previous research (Steinbeis & Singer, 2013). Children may experience greater empathy with age and become aware of self-presentational norms that discourage disclosure of this emotion. Implications for social-emotional adjustment will be addressed.

Authors

• Janet J Boseovski, University of North Carolina - Greensboro
  Presenting Author

• Amber Campos, University of North Carolina Greensboro
  Non-Presenting Author

• Candace Lapan, Wingate University
  Non-Presenting Author