I love the English language, but sometimes it doesn’t do the sensations of the soul justice. There are some words so beautiful and untranslatable that people have resorted to leaving them in their original form. And no, I’m not talking about “enchilada,” though that is a beautiful word, too.
Although there are a million instances where English does not capture the true meaning of a word, the delicious precision of “Schadenfreude” is definitely at the top of the list. It perfectly sums up the universal human emotion of taking joy in the misfortune of others.
Hang on, “joy in the misfortune of others?” That’s a “universal human emotion,” as plentiful and as powerful as love or passion or sadness or anger? The truth is, Schadenfreude is as biologically driven as any other emotion humans may feel. A recent study published in Science magazine showed that when a person sees someone he or she envies, suffer or fall from grace, the anterior cingulate cortex, the area closely associated with reward anticipation, of his or her brain activates. And no one is immune — the levels of activation varied across the subjects, but they all showed some sign of satisfaction when faced with an envied person’s misfortune.
Immediately after reading the study, I became properly appalled — I thought, “I’m not a sadist. I don’t delight in the failures of other people.” But I quickly began to realize the many platforms available for people to relish in others’ misfortunes. “America’s Funniest Home Videos” is a pop-culture celebration of Schadenfreude. It’s also in every failure of our most hated sports rivals. I’m not naming names, but a certain basketball team’s terrible season has made me positively giddy. And many feel it when they hear Lindsay Lohan went to jail--again. There is a certain inescapable pleasure in “they got what they deserved” combined with the more primal, “I’m glad it wasn’t me.”
John Portmann, a professor of religion at the University of Virginia and author of “When Bad Things Happen to Other People” told The New York Times, “We Americans love putting people up on pedestals and we love taking them down.” With the praise and adulation of success comes an equally praised and adulated fall from success if ever the public opinion decides someone is too successful.
So the question: Is it wrong? Should human feelings of Schadenfreude be fraught with feelings of guilt? Psychology Today writer Dr. Christopher Peterson argues, essentially, that humans should feel terrible for taking pleasure in other people’s pain. But Peterson seems to think it is a behavior people can control and feel when desired.
The previously mentioned study in Science argues just the opposite — there is nothing humans can do about what activates in our brain’s chemistry when certain events occur. People can’t help feeling sad when they fail something, and they can’t help feeling Schadenfreude when guys like Anthony Weiner get caught either. It’s not only because what he did was wrong, but also because he was a Congressman, and those guys get all the breaks. As Peterson said, “It’s human nature.”
Reach the columnist at alesha.rimmelin@asu.edu
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