Adolescents’ Narratives of Schadenfreude

• In Event: 3-048 - Schadenfreude, Revenge and Forgiveness: How Teens React to Others' Misfortunes and Transgressions

Integrative Statement

Schadenfreude is the feeling of pleasure at another’s misfortune (van Dijk, Ouwerkerk et al., 2015) and occurs within social interactions, commonly amongst enemies but also between friends and strangers. Relatively little developmental research has examined schadenfreude to date (see Schindler et al., 2015). Here, we aimed to take the first steps in examining how, when, and why adolescents experience schadenfreude. This may elucidate the reasons behind adolescents’ antisocial behavior.
We investigated adolescents’ narrative accounts of schadenfreude toward multiple targets using an ethnically diverse sample of 12- and 15-year-olds (N=60) from Canada. Adolescents provided first-person accounts of instances they experienced schadenfreude toward a liked peer, a disliked peer, a teacher and a parent), resulting in a total of four narratives per participant (N narratives = 194). Data were binary coded for types of misfortunes and reasoning for schadenfreude. Reasons were coded into four categories (i.e., deservingness, self-benefit, humor, and disengagement) based on our and related research on emotions and reasoning in social conflict situations.
Adolescents’ most frequently mentioned misfortunes and reasonings (along with descriptions) for schadenfreude are displayed in Tables 1 and 2. Physical harm followed by failure and punishment were the most frequently mentioned misfortunes, and deservingness and self-benefit were the two most frequently mentioned reasonings. Developmental differences in reasoning were found, as 15-year-olds were more likely to use deservingness reasoning following schadenfreude compared to 12-year-olds, χ2(1)= 6.15, p < .05, and 12-year-olds were more likely to use disengagement reasoning compared to 15-year-olds, χ2(1)= 8.57, p < .01.
Finally, adolescents’ schadenfreude differed depending on target. That is, a series of repeated measures binomial logistic regressions (controlling for gender, SES, and age) revealed that failure misfortunes differed by target, Wald χ2(6)= 15.69, p = .001, as adolescents were more likely to experience schadenfreude after seeing a liked peer compared to a teacher, b = 1.87, SE = 0.58, p < .001, OR = 7.02, or a parent fail, b = 1.95, SE = 0.62, p < .01, OR = 6.49. Further, punishment misfortunes also differed by target Wald χ2(6)= 16.27, p < .05, where schadenfreude was least likely to be felt following punishment in narratives about parents. Reasoning also varied by target, Wald χ2(6) = 9.11, p < .05, where deservingness was more likely to be mentioned toward a disliked peer rather than a teacher, b = .93, SE = 0.41, p < .05, OR = 2.53, and a parent, b = 1.44, SE = 0.54, p < .01, OR = 4.22.
These findings suggest that schadenfreude is a multifaceted emotion, occurring following various misfortunes, for different reasons, and toward multiple targets. Our developmental findings reveal that the nature of schadenfreude may change with age, which may reflect shifting concerns about revenge and associated conflict resolution strategies. Finally, the relationship with the target likely affects how and why adolescents experience schadenfreude, which may imply that this emotion has multiple social functions—for example, it may serve as a motive for competition among friends and retaliatory justice among enemies.

Authors

• Joanna Peplak, University of Toronto
  Presenting Author

• Tina Malti, University of Toronto
  Non-Presenting Author