What is Schadenfreude?
by Doug Berube
Schadenfreude – ‘shä-dən-fröi-də: noun; “Pleasure derived by someone from another person’s misfortune.” Merriam-Webster
I’m becoming more aware of the politics of our nation and the stratification of behavior of the American citizens. Notice I used stratification instead of class. This is why schadenfreude comes to mind. Schadenfreude is manifested as a human character flaw of envy founded in a person or groups of people with low-esteem. This flaw causes individuals to look for groups (tribes) that can give them a self-affirmation boost by confirming their beliefs and behaviors. Taking pleasure in someone else’s misfortune is a lack of empathy and supported by tribal behavior of separation.
The Harley-Davidson motorcycle brands are a good example of the good side and dark side of the extraordinary brand. Schadenfreude was used to market this brand’s tribal envy as the main message and the message was, you have to ride a HOG to be tough. This branding created a dark side tribal behavior that was romanticized by Hollywood, which eventually became a tribal behavior of mayhem and destruction. Today the brand has a very good side and the motorcycles are owned by persons from all walks of life. This brand honors and stands up for the veterans of this country and never forgetting the MIA’s and POW’s. The Harley-Davidson brands are highly motivated about helping children and providing support to many charities. Harley-Davidson illustrates a company can change its brand by marketing a brand that cares.
Schadenfreude has recently become an area of scientific study. Studying empathy; scientists use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) for mapping of real-time brain activity centers as individuals are exposed to another person’s pain. The studies of the brain using the fMRI have been opening up this organ of the human body to a level of understanding, which in the past was a mystery. Modern technology will continue opening up the brain and revealing the voice we hear in our head is the voice from our brain. Now this information is increasing our knowledge of how we think. As we learn more about how the brain works and this increases the opportunities for humans to become more compassionate and empathetic.
This behavior makes sense evolutionarily when it came to our species survival. The misfortune of a competitor was a victory for the fortunate one. The competitive nature is still important today because it is part of our social advancements as a culture, but there is a bad side. 5th Avenue uses schadenfreude as a marketing tool to create an envying class that spend all their time focusing on keeping up with the Jones’ and not necessarily focusing on contributing to society; it’s a take all society. Envy and lacking empathy is not good for the advancement of our society because a large section of our society will be left behind.
Today schadenfreude is a tribal behavior based on others misfortunes and using their misfortunes against them as a weapon for submission. Enjoyment in the misfortunes of others is divisive and non-productive. I’m not referring the equal competitive marketplace; I’m referring the unequal advantage of the fortunate enjoying in what they took from the misfortunate. Tribal only compassion and empathy is also non-productive for society and is used as a tool for class separation. Self-affirmation lacks empathy and eventually stunts any growth we can make as compassionate beings.
References:
Hickman, Thomas., Ward, James. The Dark Side of Brand Community: Inter-Group Stereotyping, Trash Talking, and Schadenfreude, 2007, On-line Posting, www.acrwebsite.org
Moss, Simon, Dr., Schadenfreude, Cognition and Emotion, 2009, On-line Posting, www.psych-it.com
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