Welcome to Brainstuff from how Stuff works dot com where smart Happens. Hi Am Marshall Brain with today's question, what is schadenfreude? Schadenfreude is one of those words that you hear about once a month, and because it's a German word and it sounds kind of funny, you may be wondering what it actually means and how it made its way into the English language. If you look the word up in the dictionary, the definition goes like this, It's
satisfaction or pleasure felt at someone else's misfortune. There are lots of examples of schadenfreude on the web, in particular. For example, the popular site fail blog is one way of experiencing schadenfreude. You get to see other people have accidents or other kinds of failures, and apparently this is incredibly popular because it's one of the most subscribe to and watch channels on YouTube. Chan Freuda is different from sadistic pleasure, where the person is actually causing the misfortune
through cruelty. Sadism is defined as any enjoyment in being cruel. The person experiencing schadenfreuda plays no role in causing the misfortune. He she is simply the observer. The alternative to schadenfreuda, of course, would be compassion, which is defined as a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who's stricken by misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering. So why do we get pleasure out of another person's pain?
Scientific American recently took a look at the whole phenomenon of schadenfreude, and it seems like it's wired into the human brain through the reward center. In the article that Scientific American wrote, they say scientists who study schadenfreuda are learning that this secret happiness that another person's loss has biological or pinnings. The feeling registers in the brain as a distinct form of pleasure, a satisfaction comparable to that
of eating a good meal. Schan Freuda does not seem to be a particularly endearing feature of the human brain. The article spirals downward from there, pointing out that people in political parties can as a group, experience glee when bad things happen to the opposition party or can be pinned onto the other party. People group by race can use schadenfreude to encourage prejudice against people of other races,
and in some cases, schadenfreude can morph into sadism. If you feel good at another's misfortune, why not cause more misfortune for them yourself? What can you do to avoid this process? The article suggests recognizing schadenfreud as it happens, perhaps even discussing it and its effects with others, in order to inoculate yourself against the more deleterious effects if it were to escalate. As the article puts it, this may help to avoid a slippery slope towards sadism, or
you could work the other angle. Ramp up compassion when you feel schadenfreud is starting to take effect. For more on this and thousands of other topics, does that how stuff works dot com and don't forget to check out the brain stuff blog on the house stuff works dot com home page. You can also follow brain stuff on Facebook or Twitter at brain stuff hs W. The house Stuff Works I fine app has arrived. Download it today on iTunes