Feeling Pleasure at Others' Pain a Matter of Biology

Humans are biologically programmed to take pleasure in others' pain, a reaction known as "Schadenfreude," a new study suggests.

Researcher Mina Cikara got the idea for the experiment when she decided to wear a Boston Red Sox hat to a Yankees game, a decision that earned her more than one vulgarity.

By measuring the electric activity of cheek muscles, Cikara and her fellow researchers found that people smile more when someone they envy experiences misfortune or discomfort.

"We were interested in the conditions under which people fail to empathize with one another and how, for some of those people, they experience happiness at another's expense," Cikara, now an assistant professor at Carnegie Mellon University, said in a statement.

In their second experiment, the researchers used functional MRI (fMRI) and self-reporting to discover whether participants were willing to inflict harm on certain groups. The results were telling.

"People were willing to hurt an envy target, saying, 'Yes, let's shock her,'" Cikara said. "We found that surprising because we weren't certain participants would self report that."

Finally, the researchers presented various scenarios that countered the stereotype of a certain individual, such as a banker advising clients pro-bono. The banker was then shown using his bonuses to buy drugs and then as unemployed but still dressing up for work. Participants then rated how they felt, exhibiting less warmth in the case that they experienced disgust and envy than pity, for example.

Finally, the researchers used a sports scenario, again using fMRI and self-reporting to determine how intense sports fans felt when they watched opponents strike out or make great plays, including against a team they did not care about. Sure enough, individuals reported excitement when their hated team succeeded, even when the opponent was not their own team. 

"In our larger model of stereotypes, we find that when things go smoothly, people go along to get along with these envied groups," co-author Susan Fiske, a psychology professor at Princeton University, said in a statement. "It's when the chips are down that these groups become real targets of Schadenfreude."

Adding to this, Cikara notes that this trait found in many may be beneficial in some cases, while crippling in others.

"A lack of empathy is not always pathological. It's a human response, and not everyone experiences this, but a significant portion does," Cikara said.

"We need to remember this in terms of everyday situations. If you think about the way workplaces and organizations are set up, for example, it raises an interesting question: Is competition the best way to get your employees to produce? It's possible, in some circumstances, that competition is good. In other ways, people might be preoccupied with bringing other people down, and that's not what an organization wants."