Editing Schadenfreude (section)

== Scientific studies ==
A ''[[New York Times]]'' article in 2002 cited a number of scientific studies of schadenfreude, which it defined as "delighting in others' misfortune". Many such studies are based on [[social comparison theory]], the idea that when people around us have bad luck, we look better to ourselves. Other researchers have found that people with low [[self-esteem]] are more likely to feel schadenfreude than are those who have high self-esteem.<ref>{{cite news |last=St. John |first=Warren |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE3D6153CF937A1575BC0A9649C8B63 |title=Sorrow So Sweet: A Guilty Pleasure in Another's Woe |newspaper=The New York Times |date=24 August 2002}}</ref>

A 2003 study examined intergroup schadenfreude within the context of sports, specifically an international football (soccer) competition. The study focused on the German and Dutch football teams and their fans. The results of this study indicated that the emotion of schadenfreude is very sensitive to circumstances that make it more or less legitimate to feel such malicious pleasure toward a sports rival.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Leach |first1=Colin Wayne |last2=Spears |first2=Russell |last3=Branscombe |first3=Nyla R. |last4=Doosje |first4=Bertjan |title=Malicious pleasure: Schadenfreude at the suffering of another group. |journal=Journal of Personality and Social Psychology |date=2003 |volume=84 |issue=5 |pages=932–943 |doi=10.1037/0022-3514.84.5.932 |pmid=12757139 |hdl=1808/248 |hdl-access=free|issn=1939-1315 }}</ref>

A 2011 study by Cikara and colleagues using [[functional magnetic resonance imaging]] (fMRI) examined schadenfreude among [[Boston Red Sox]] and [[New York Yankees]] fans, and found that fans showed increased activation in brain areas correlated with self-reported pleasure ([[ventral striatum]]) when observing the rival team experience a negative outcome (e.g., a [[strikeout]]).<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Cikara |first1=Mina |last2=Botvinick |first2=Matthew M. |last3=Fiske |first3=Susan T. |title=Us Versus Them |journal=Psychological Science |date=26 January 2011 |volume=22 |issue=3 |pages=306–313 |doi=10.1177/0956797610397667 |pmid=21270447 |pmc=3833634 |issn=0956-7976 }}</ref> By contrast, fans exhibited increased activation in the [[Anterior cingulate cortex|anterior cingulate]] and insula when viewing their own team experience a negative outcome.

A 2006 experiment about "justice served" suggests that men, but not women, enjoy seeing "bad people" suffer. The study was designed to measure [[empathy]] by watching which brain centers are stimulated when subjects observed via fMRI see someone experiencing physical [[pain]]. Researchers expected that the brain's empathy center of subjects would show more stimulation when those seen as "good" got an electric shock, than would occur if the shock was given to someone the subject had reason to consider "bad". This was indeed the case, but for male subjects, the brain's pleasure centers also lit up when someone got a shock that the male thought was "well-deserved".<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Singer |first1=Tania |last2=Seymour |first2=Ben |last3=O'Doherty |first3=John P. |last4=Stephan |first4=Klaas E. |last5=Dolan |first5=Raymond J. |last6=Frith |first6=Chris D. |title=Empathic neural responses are modulated by the perceived fairness of others |journal=Nature |date=18 January 2006 |volume=439 |issue=7075 |pages=466–469 |doi=10.1038/nature04271 |pmid=16421576 |pmc=2636868 |bibcode=2006Natur.439..466S |issn=0028-0836 }} For a lay summary, see {{cite news|title=When Bad People Are Punished, Men Smile (but Women Don't)|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/19/science/when-bad-people-are-punished-men-smile-but-women-dont.html|work=The New York Times|date=2006-01-19}}</ref>

Brain-scanning studies show that schadenfreude is correlated with envy in subjects. Strong feelings of envy activated physical pain nodes in the brain's dorsal anterior cingulate cortex; the brain's reward centers, such as the ventral striatum, were activated by news that other people who were envied had suffered misfortune. The magnitude of the brain's schadenfreude response could even be predicted from the strength of the previous envy response.<ref>{{cite journal |journal=Science |date=2009-02-13 |title=When Your Gain Is My Pain and Your Pain Is My Gain: Neural Correlates of Envy and Schadenfreude |doi=10.1126/science.1165604 |last1=Takahashi |first1=H. |last2=Kato |first2=M. |last3=Matsuura |first3=M. |last4=Mobbs |first4=D. |last5=Suhara |first5=T. |last6=Okubo |first6=Y. |volume=323 |issue=5916 |pages=937–9 |pmid=19213918 |bibcode=2009Sci...323..937T |s2cid=26678804|issn=0036-8075 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/17/science/17angi.html |newspaper=The New York Times |date=17 February 2009 |title=In Pain and Joy of Envy, the Brain May Play a Role |first=Natalie |last=Angier}}</ref>

A study conducted in 2009 provides evidence for people's capacity to feel schadenfreude in response to negative events in politics.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Combs |first1=David J.Y. |last2=Powell |first2=Caitlin A.J. |last3=Schurtz |first3=David Ryan |last4=Smith |first4=Richard H. |title=Politics, schadenfreude, and ingroup identification: The sometimes happy thing about a poor economy and death |journal=Journal of Experimental Social Psychology |date=July 2009 |volume=45 |issue=4 |pages=635–646 |doi=10.1016/j.jesp.2009.02.009 |issn=0022-1031}}</ref> The study was designed to determine whether or not there was a possibility that events containing objective misfortunes might produce schadenfreude. It was reported in the study that the likelihood of experiencing feelings of schadenfreude depends upon whether an individual's own party or the opposing party is suffering harm. This study suggests that the domain of politics is prime territory for feelings of schadenfreude, especially for those who identify strongly with their political party.

In 2014, research in the form of an online survey analyzed the relationship between schadenfreude and '[[Dark Triad]]' traits (i.e. [[narcissism]], [[Machiavellianism (psychology)|Machiavellianism]], and [[psychopathy]]). The findings showed that those respondents who had higher levels of Dark Triad traits also had higher levels of schadenfreude, engaged in greater anti-social activities, and had greater interests in [[sensationalism]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=James|first1=Samantha|last2=Kavanagh|first2=Phillip S.|last3=Jonason|first3=Peter K.|last4=Chonody|first4=Jill M.|last5=Scrutton|first5=Hayley E.|date=2014-10-01|title=The Dark Triad, schadenfreude, and sensational interests: Dark personalities, dark emotions, and dark behaviors|url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S019188691400258X|journal=Personality and Individual Differences|language=en|volume=68|pages=211–216|doi=10.1016/j.paid.2014.04.020|issn=0191-8869|url-access=subscription}}</ref>