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Schadenfreude
Schadenfreude (/ˈʃɑːdənfrɔɪdə/ ⓘ; German: [ˈʃaːdn̩ˌfʁɔʏ̯də] ⓘ; lit. "harm-joy") is the experience of pleasure, joy, or self-satisfaction that comes from the first- or second-hand learning of the troubles, failures, pain, suffering, or humiliation of another. It is a loanword from German. Schadenfreude has been detected in children as young as 24 months and may be an important social emotion establishing "inequity aversion".
Schadenfreude is a term borrowed from German. It is a compound of Schaden ("damage/harm") and Freude ("joy"). The German word was first mentioned in English texts in 1852 and 1867, and first used in English running text in 1895. In German, it was first attested in the 1740s. The earliest seems to be Christoph Starke, "Synopsis bibliothecae exegeticae in Vetus Testamentum," Leipzig, 1750.
Researchers have found that there are three driving forces behind schadenfreude – aggression, rivalry, and justice.
Self-esteem has a negative relationship with the frequency and intensity of schadenfreude experienced by an individual; individuals with lower self-esteem tend to experience schadenfreude more frequently and intensely.
It is hypothesized that this inverse relationship is mediated through the human psychological inclination to define and protect their self- and in-group- identity or self-conception. Specifically, for someone with high self-esteem, seeing another person fail may still bring them a small (but effectively negligible) surge of confidence because the observer's high self-esteem significantly lowers the threat they believe the visibly-failing human poses to their status or identity. Since this confident individual perceives that, regardless of circumstances, the successes and failures of the other person will have little impact on their own status or well-being, they have very little emotional investment in how the other person fares, be it positive or negative.
Conversely, for someone with low self-esteem, someone who is more successful poses a threat to their sense of self, and seeing this person fall can be a source of comfort because they perceive a relative improvement in their internal or in-group standing.
Schadenfreude has equivalents in many other languages (such as: in Dutch leedvermaak, Swedish skadeglädje, Danish skadefro, Hungarian káröröm Czech škodolibost and Slovak škodoradosť) but no commonly used precise English single-word equivalent. There are other ways to express the concept in English.
Epicaricacy is a seldom-used direct equivalent, borrowed from Greek epichairekakia (ἐπιχαιρεκακία, first attested in Aristotle) from ἐπί epi 'upon', χαρά chara 'joy', and κακόν kakon 'evil'.
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Schadenfreude
Schadenfreude (/ˈʃɑːdənfrɔɪdə/ ⓘ; German: [ˈʃaːdn̩ˌfʁɔʏ̯də] ⓘ; lit. "harm-joy") is the experience of pleasure, joy, or self-satisfaction that comes from the first- or second-hand learning of the troubles, failures, pain, suffering, or humiliation of another. It is a loanword from German. Schadenfreude has been detected in children as young as 24 months and may be an important social emotion establishing "inequity aversion".
Schadenfreude is a term borrowed from German. It is a compound of Schaden ("damage/harm") and Freude ("joy"). The German word was first mentioned in English texts in 1852 and 1867, and first used in English running text in 1895. In German, it was first attested in the 1740s. The earliest seems to be Christoph Starke, "Synopsis bibliothecae exegeticae in Vetus Testamentum," Leipzig, 1750.
Researchers have found that there are three driving forces behind schadenfreude – aggression, rivalry, and justice.
Self-esteem has a negative relationship with the frequency and intensity of schadenfreude experienced by an individual; individuals with lower self-esteem tend to experience schadenfreude more frequently and intensely.
It is hypothesized that this inverse relationship is mediated through the human psychological inclination to define and protect their self- and in-group- identity or self-conception. Specifically, for someone with high self-esteem, seeing another person fail may still bring them a small (but effectively negligible) surge of confidence because the observer's high self-esteem significantly lowers the threat they believe the visibly-failing human poses to their status or identity. Since this confident individual perceives that, regardless of circumstances, the successes and failures of the other person will have little impact on their own status or well-being, they have very little emotional investment in how the other person fares, be it positive or negative.
Conversely, for someone with low self-esteem, someone who is more successful poses a threat to their sense of self, and seeing this person fall can be a source of comfort because they perceive a relative improvement in their internal or in-group standing.
Schadenfreude has equivalents in many other languages (such as: in Dutch leedvermaak, Swedish skadeglädje, Danish skadefro, Hungarian káröröm Czech škodolibost and Slovak škodoradosť) but no commonly used precise English single-word equivalent. There are other ways to express the concept in English.
Epicaricacy is a seldom-used direct equivalent, borrowed from Greek epichairekakia (ἐπιχαιρεκακία, first attested in Aristotle) from ἐπί epi 'upon', χαρά chara 'joy', and κακόν kakon 'evil'.