Dripping Life: Schadenfreude: It’s part of being human
The word is “schadenfreude.” It’s pronounced, (shod dun froid duh). It means: “enjoyment obtained from the troubles of others.” Curiously, we don’t write it or say it, but we definitely feel it. We’ve all experienced it.
Schadenfreude comes from a combination of two German words -- Schaden (meaning harm) and Freude (meaning joy).
If you’ve ever watched someone being voted off the island, getting fired, scoring lowest on “Dancing with the Stars” or being scammed out of a Green Card on “90 Day Fiancee,” you’ve definitely experienced it.
The following is a written example of schadenfreude: “Jerry had a feeling of schadenfreude when his exwife’s second marriage failed.”
But where does this dark side of humans originate?
According to psychologists, there’s part of our brain that becomes stimulated when we are rewarded at the expense of another.
Let’s say we see someone carrying coffee and they set it on top of their car while they open the door. But before they can retrieve the coffee, it spills and runs down the windshield…which means the car’s owner must clean off the windshield before driving away.
Our reaction? As watchers, we may laugh out loud or if the same thing has happened to us, we may laugh a little less, knowing how the poor guy feels.
But for argument’s sake, let’s say that person is, coincidentally, your boss. In this case, you may be glad you’re wearing a mask to cover up your hysterical glee. Or, if the coffee accident victim is a senior citizen, you may smile, at least momentarily, before you hop out of your car to offer your help.
In any case, schadenfreude gives us pleasure. Why? Because our brain chooses pleasure over fear every time. In fact, science tells us we are conditioned to avoid what we fear and seek what gives us pleasure…and if alienating someone is pleasurable, perhaps it’s also addictive.
For example, on some level, we know that putting someone down, lying or cheating is not a good thing to do. Yet in little ways, we may do it with some frequency.
At the University of Basel in Switzerland, researchers gave study subjects extra dopamine, the chemical of pleasure in all drugs and alcohol, to force the brain to release. People who received more dopamine were more likely to cheat if they knew they were not going to get caught or suffer any consequences.
Broadway musical fans may remember schadenfreude as the topic and title of a song in the hit show, “Avenue Q.” It’s a song about the pleasure we take at another’s misfortune. Seeing a puppet and an actor sing this song allows the audience to laugh unabashedly at our constant human folly.
In the song, the characters acknowledge their enjoyment at seeing waitresses dropping a tray of glasses, figure skaters falling on the ice, feeling happy that someone else is feeling crappy and other insights into this human dark side.
“Schadenfreude is part of ‘human nature,’” one of the Avenue Q characters pointed out. Then he added, “How glad we can be at times that ‘I’m not you.’”
Putting this song into a Broadway musical is a good way to help us understand this darker side of the human race. It’s also a song the audience relates to, showing that the feeling of schadenfreude is felt universally.
We cannot help but bask in delight when certain people, especially certain popular celebrities, politicians and other public figures make embarrassing mistakes… but perhaps when we realize that this is a normal-but-not-always-admirable feeling, we can do more to replace it with sincere empathy, instead.