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

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Thoughts of revenge are known to energize pleasure centers in the brain (de Quervain, et al., 2004; Hellman et al., 2014). The related concept of schadenfreude describes feeling pleasure at another’s misfortune. Despite important differences, both phenomena may be linked to motives of retaliatory justice and social dominance or status (Seip et al., 2014). The four papers in this symposium extend the literature on revenge, forgiveness, and schadenfreude in significant ways by employing diverse samples and methodologies, and by extending the conceptual focus to include how revenge and retaliation may be intertwined with prosocial motivations. The first paper examines adolescents’ narratives about schadenfreude experiences within different relationship contexts. The second paper explores the juxtaposition of revenge and forgiveness in Colombian adolescents’ experiences of conflict. The third paper examines adolescents’ actions and appraisals of times that they attempted to reconcile or take revenge on behalf of a victimized peer. And finally, the fourth paper uses a laboratory paradigm to examine how empathy and identification processes predict to adolescents’ altruistic aggressive behaviors toward those who have rejected another peer. Overall, these papers reveal a complex set of motives underlying ostensibly antisocial processes and links between vengeful and prosocial behavior.

Sub Unit

• Social Relationships

Chairs

• Kristina McDonald, University of Alabama

• Karin Frey, University of Washington

Individual Presentations

• Adolescents’ Narratives of Schadenfreude - Presenting Author: Joanna Peplak, University of Toronto; Non-Presenting Author: Tina Malti, University of Toronto

• Coordination of Revenge and Forgiveness in Colombian Adolescents’ Narrative Accounts of Peer Injury - Presenting Author: Holly Recchia, Concordia University; Non-Presenting Author: Cecilia Wainryb, University of Utah; Non-Presenting Author: Fatima Inigo, Concordia University; Non-Presenting Author: Angelica Restrepo, Concordia University; Non-Presenting Author: Olga Lucia Gonzalez Beltran, Universidad de Los Andes; Non-Presenting Author: Roberto Posada, Universidad Nacional de Colombia

• Third-Party Revenge and Reconciliation: Appraisals and Emotions of Diverse American Adolescents - Presenting Author: Karin Frey, University of Washington; Non-Presenting Author: Zoe Higheagle Strong, Washington State University; Non-Presenting Author: Adaurennaya C. Onyewuenyi, The College of New Jersey; Non-Presenting Author: Saejin Kwak-Tanguay, University of Washington; Non-Presenting Author: Emma M. McMain, Washington State University

• “Why would you do that?!" Altruistic Aggressive Responses to an Unfamiliar Peer’s Rejection - Presenting Author: Carolyn E. Gibson, Drury University; Non-Presenting Author: Kristina McDonald, University of Alabama