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Why do we secretly feel pleased when our best friends fail?

21 March 2019

We may not care to admit it, but we’ve all felt it: that frisson of guilty pleasure when learning of another person’s bad luck.

The misfortune of others tastes like honey
Japanese saying

It’s known as schadenfreude, which translates from German as damage joy.

“We enjoy it when people who have done something bad or who are hypocrites are caught,” explained cultural historian Tiffany Watt Smith.

“Or maybe it’s as silly as the person who pushed past you on the station stairs then missing their train.”

Even our best friends aren’t immune and it can point to envy, competitiveness or our sense of inferiority. But Tiffany believes it’s nothing to be ashamed of.

“It’s a very natural and normal response. It’s part of how we make ourselves feel better when we are presented with unfairnesses in life.”

Why do we take pleasure in celebrities鈥� misfortunes?

Tiffany Watt Smith reveals our long history of schadenfreude.

Public schadenfreude

The internet appears to be bringing this formerly shameful emotion out into the open.

According to Tiffany, not only is schadenfreude is much more visible than it used to be, its effects are long-lasting.

“What might have been [reserved to] a sly snigger around the watercooler, or a small grin shared between colleagues when you boss gets someone’s name wrong in a presentation, suddenly it’s writ large on the internet, with people sharing and liking and it’s preserved in the digital aspic.”

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Why do we feel joy at another's distress?

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