As I think back about my childhood there are a few dark memories that elicit some shame.\u00a0 The specifics of these rare events are vague in my mind, but I do recall my reaction and the subsequent feelings aroused deep within.\u00a0 Part of my shame stemmed from the certainty that I alone was so inclined to find humor in the misfortune of others.\u00a0 Come to find out, later in life, the Germans have a very specific word for my inappropriate reactions.\u00a0 The word, Schadenfreude, has no English equivalent, but imagine my relief to learn that my strong compulsion to laugh when a playmate injured himself was not some deep seated character flaw.\u00a0 I like to consider myself a sensitive and caring guy; generally, pretty empathetic.\u00a0 That was true, I am told, even when I was a child.\u00a0 But, on occasion, I really struggled with a deep and overpowering reflexive drive to heartily laugh when one particular friend of mine managed to hurt himself.\u00a0 When anybody else got hurt I tended to writhe with a sick feeling in my knees.\u00a0 Not so with this guy.\u00a0 He was older than I and although I loved spending time with him, I also experienced a fair amount of envy in his presence. \u00a0 I admired him for his confidence, competence, and he seemed to possess all the wondrous possessions of my dreams.\u00a0 As I’ve come to learn more about schadenfreude, I now realize that this envy probably played out in the expression of this emotion.<\/p>\n
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So what is this schadenfreude response and where does it come from?\u00a0 First, what is it?\u00a0 The word itself is derived from schaden,<\/em> which in German means adversity or harm and freude,<\/em> which means joy.\u00a0 Literally the term means deriving pleasure from another’s misfortune.\u00a0 Although people rarely acknowledge this feeling, it is very common and probably as old as humankind.\u00a0 It drives the infatuation people have with celebrities and politicians particularly when it comes to their foibles and faux pas. \u00a0 It also drives the success of slap stick comedy and the humor derived from the ubiquitous home videos of men being unexpectedly struck\u00a0 in the private parts.\u00a0 Who has not seen and laughed at least one of these videos?\u00a0 This response transcends all of human kind and it certainly keeps the tabloids and paparazzi in business.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Schadenfreude has of late become an area of scientific inquiry.\u00a0 Little by little we are acquiring more and more information about this phenomena.\u00a0 Studies of empathy using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) mapped out, in real time, active centers of the brain as individuals were exposed to another person’s pain. The fMRI detected activity in the frontoinsular<\/em> and anterior cingulate<\/em> cortices.\u00a0 These areas of the brain are associated with pain responses and the subsequent emotions.\u00a0 Empathy is likely a brain-based response whereby the witness re-lives the negative emotions of pain without actually enduring the physical stimuli.\u00a0 A surprising result of this research was that when some subjects (men in particular), witnessed unfortunate things happening to bad people, the left nucleus accumbens (NAcc) tended to light up.\u00a0 The NAcc is a collection of neurons within the striatum, which is thought to be a major reward center in the brain.\u00a0 The striatum play important roles in our experiences of\u00a0pleasure, laughter, reward, and even addiction and aggression.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n We have learned even more from the work of neuroscientist Hidehiko Takahashi and his colleagues at Japan\u2019s National Institute of Radiological Sciences.\u00a0 They asked 19 adult volunteers to read scenarios describing the successes and misfortunes of fictional characters and to report their feelings about these people as they were undergoing an fMRI. They discovered that reports of envy were associated with activity in the anterior cingulate cortex (the same pain center noted above).\u00a0 Envy, it seems, like empathy, is an unpleasant experience, processed in the same way as is physical pain. On the other hand, the feelings of pleasure associated with another’s misfortune were associated with increased activity in the striatum (pleasure center).\u00a0 In contrast to empathy and envy, schadenfreude actually feels good.\u00a0 Another person’s misfortune can trigger the same positive feelings as those associated with eating a great meal, hearing a really funny joke, or watching your team win the big game.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n So, it seems, we are hard wired to feel schadenfreude.\u00a0\u00a0 There must have been some evolutionary advantage conferred to those who experienced this emotion.\u00a0 Or perhaps, it may simply be secondary to some other traits that did offer selective advantages.\u00a0 Emily Anthes (2010) in an article in Scientific American: MIND noted “from an evolutionary standpoint, schadenfreude makes a lot of sense.\u00a0 The world is a competitive place, and an individual benefits, for instance, when a sexual competitor breaks a leg or a hunting rival falls ill<\/em>.”\u00a0 There is a certain degree of social relativism at work here.\u00a0 Another’s misfortune stands you in better relative position for limited resources and thus survival. That’s the evolutionary psychology angle.\u00a0 Although the survival piece is certainly less relevant today, sexual selection and economic competition still are.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n As it turns out, one is more likely to experience schadenfreude when one envies or harbors disdain for the victim of misfortune.\u00a0 And lack of personal familiarity with the victim also seems to be at play.\u00a0 Familiarity is most likely to elicit the empathy response.\u00a0 So, I guess there is no need for me to feel shame for this particular dirty little secret<\/em>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Speaking of dirty little secrets, I only felt a modicum of shame about the pleasure I experienced upon learning of the downfalls of Senator Larry Craig and Pastor Ted Haggerd.\u00a0 These self-righteous men publicly and vociferously professed the immorality of homosexuality while privately partaking in same gender sexual activity.\u00a0 I’m guessing that hypocrisy like true evil holds a special schadenfreude spot in our NAcc.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n For a humorous spin on this concept listen to the song on this subject from the racy Broadway play called Avenue Q.<\/p>\n