Schadenfreude
Guilty pleasure at someone else's misfortune.
Schadenfreude is pleasure at someone else's misfortune. The German word names this guilty thrill. The face wants to smile when a rival meets a setback. Few emotions are so widely felt and so little admitted.
The small ugly pleasure is still human
Schadenfreude is the guilty enjoyment of someone else's misfortune. It is an almost universal human experience and almost universally denied in polite company. Acknowledge it to yourself. The person who hurt you suffering. The arrogant figure falling. The rival stumbling. Noticing the feeling is not the same as endorsing it. The work is to let the feeling pass without feeding it. Do not dwell. Do not celebrate publicly. Do not make it part of your identity. Just notice: there goes a small ugly part of me that feels pleasure at this, and that part is also human. Then move on. Most people who deny schadenfreude altogether are just unaware of it. Awareness is the first kindness.
"There is a secret and awful sweetness in the misfortunes of even our best friends."
— François de La Rochefoucauld
Schadenfreude has a small, quick body signature. The face wants to smile but often tries not to. The chest holds a brief light pleasure. The stomach may have a guilty churn underneath the satisfaction. There is sometimes a particular quality of involuntary laughter or grin that the person tries to suppress. The body is registering pleasure while the mind is registering that this is supposed to be a bad feeling to have.
Research on schadenfreude has consistently shown it is universal across cultures and present in young children, suggesting it is biologically built in rather than purely learned (Smith et al., 2009). Functional MRI studies have found that schadenfreude activates reward processing regions similar to those involved in straightforward pleasure, particularly when the misfortune befalls someone the person envies or sees as a competitor. The feeling is often suppressed because of moral and social norms, but the underlying response appears to be a basic feature of social cognition.
Schadenfreude is biologically built in but is triggered more strongly in certain conditions. Common patterns include:
Schadenfreude is universal and not removable. The practices below help when it has become corrosive or when it is interfering with relationships and self-perception.
Acknowledge it rather than deny it
The shame about feeling schadenfreude is usually worse than the schadenfreude itself. Pretending you do not feel it does not remove it. Acknowledging 'I felt pleasure at their misfortune' clearly to yourself often takes the heat out. The denial is what keeps it operating in the background.
Examine what it is telling you
Schadenfreude often points at unaddressed envy, resentment, or competitive feelings. The pleasure at their fall reveals where you have been feeling diminished by their rise. Treating schadenfreude as information about your own state, rather than as a moral failure, often leads to more useful self-knowledge.
Do not act on it
Feeling schadenfreude is universal. Spreading the misfortune, telling others, prolonging the conversation about it, or piling on is something else. The feeling is not the action. Catching yourself before acting on schadenfreude is the line between ordinary humanity and cruelty.
Notice when it has tipped into chronic enjoyment
Brief schadenfreude is normal. A regular diet of pleasure at others' misfortunes, particularly through media or social platforms designed to deliver it, is corrosive. The person who consistently consumes schadenfreude often hardens over time. The capacity for compassion erodes.
If schadenfreude feels constant or driving
Pervasive schadenfreude, particularly when paired with chronic resentment, envy, or hatred, can signal that something underneath needs attention. Sometimes this is depression presenting as cynicism. Sometimes it is unprocessed wounding from earlier in life. Therapy that engages with the underlying pattern, rather than trying to suppress the schadenfreude, often helps.
"Schadenfreude is the emotion most adults feel and most adults will not admit to. The discomfort of admitting it is usually greater than the discomfort of the feeling itself."
— A common observation in research on social emotions
What does schadenfreude actually mean?
Schadenfreude is the German word for pleasure at someone else's misfortune. Literally translated, it combines schaden (harm) and freude (joy). The body lights up with a small, often guilty thrill when someone you dislike, envy, or compete with experiences a setback. English borrowed the word rather than producing its own because the feeling is uncomfortable enough that many cultures avoided naming it bluntly. The Germans named it directly, and the word has spread globally.
Is schadenfreude a normal feeling?
Yes. Research has consistently shown schadenfreude is universal across cultures and present in young children, suggesting it is biologically built in rather than purely learned. The feeling itself is universal. The cultural attitudes toward expressing it vary. The shame many people feel about experiencing schadenfreude is usually disproportionate to the feeling itself, which is a normal feature of human social cognition.
Where do people feel schadenfreude in the body?
Schadenfreude has a small, quick signature. The face wants to smile but often tries not to. The chest holds a brief light pleasure. The stomach may have a guilty churn underneath the satisfaction. There is sometimes a particular involuntary grin that the person tries to suppress. The body is registering pleasure while the mind is registering that this is supposed to be a bad feeling to have.
Why do I feel schadenfreude even though I am not a bad person?
Feeling schadenfreude does not make you a bad person. It makes you a human person. The emotion is universal and appears to be a basic feature of social cognition, particularly in competitive or comparative contexts. What matters morally is what you do with the feeling, not whether you have it. Acknowledging it without acting on it is usually the line between ordinary humanity and cruelty.
Is schadenfreude bad for you?
Brief schadenfreude is normal and harmless. Chronic schadenfreude, particularly when consumed through media designed to deliver it, can be corrosive. The capacity for compassion tends to erode with sustained schadenfreude consumption. Some research has also linked frequent schadenfreude to higher rates of envy, resentment, and reduced life satisfaction. The feeling itself is not the problem. A diet built on it usually is.
- Smith, R. H., Powell, C. A. J., Combs, D. J. Y., & Schurtz, D. R. (2009). Exploring the when and why of schadenfreude. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 3(4), 530–546. https://compass.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1751-9004.2009.00181.x
- Cikara, M., Bruneau, E. G., & Saxe, R. R. (2011). Us and them: Intergroup failures of empathy. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 20(3), 149–153. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0963721411408713
- van Dijk, W. W., & Ouwerkerk, J. W. (Eds.). (2014). Schadenfreude: Understanding Pleasure at the Misfortune of Others. Cambridge University Press.
Schadenfreude sits in the social family because it specifically arises in relation to other people. It overlaps with envy when the misfortunate person is someone you wanted to outdo, with revenge when the misfortune feels like rebalancing, and with contempt when you considered them beneath you anyway.
See where schadenfreude sits among the other 402 emotions.
Open Schadenfreude on the wheel