Stereotypes and Schadenfreude: Behavioral and neural markers of pleasure at another's misfortune

People often fail to empathize with others, and sometimes even experience Schadenfreude---pleasure at others' misfortunes. One potent predictor of Schadenfreude is envy, which, according to the Stereotype Content Model, is elicited by high-status, competitive targets. Though previous studies have examined group-level Schadenfreude, these are the first to investigate whether stereotypes are sufficient to elicit pleasure in response to high-status, competitive targets' misfortunes. More important, these are the first studies to examine whether Schadenfreude is related to a tendency to harm those targets. The pilot study investigates the affective and neural markers of intergroup envy and Schadenfreude in the context of a long-standing sports rivalry, and the extent to which neurophysiological correlates of Schadenfreude are related to self-reported likelihood of harming rival team fans. Study 1a demonstrates that stereotypes are sufficient to impact affective responses to targets' misfortunes; participants feel least negative when misfortunes befall high-status, competitive targets as compared to other targets. Study 1b replicates the findings from Study 1a and supplements them using physiological (i.e., facial EMG) measures of positive and negative affect. Study 2 replicates Studies 1a and 1b and assesses behavioral tendencies toward envied targets; participants are more willing to endorse harming high-status, competitive targets as compared to other targets. Finally, Study 3 "turns off" the Schadenfreude response by manipulating status and competition-relevant information regarding envied targets.