The psychology of evil. Why do we enjoy seeing someone fail?
Magnificence is a special pleasure that people get from someone else's misfortune.
Research points to the multifaceted nature of bullying, rooted in people's concerns about social justice, self-esteem, and social identity.
Why do we enjoy the failures of others
In Pixar's animated film "Puzzle" (Inside Out, 2015), most of the plot unfolds inside the head of the main character Riley, where her behavior is controlled by five emotions - Joy, Sadness, Fear , Disgust and Anger.
The film received rave reviews. But the director Pete Docter later admitted that he always regretted that one emotion did not make it into the frame: mischief.
Gloriousness is the feeling of joy or satisfaction at the harm or misfortune of a third party.
The English term Schadenfreude is borrowed from German and literally means "joy of harm" (Schaden means "damage", freude - "joy"). "Magnificence is the most beautiful joy because it comes from the heart," says a German proverb.
Grandiosity is closely related to envy of someone else's success. Therefore, the failures of people with a high social status usually cause especially strong joy in others. You might feel bad when a popular celebrity's career collapses, when a wealthy businessman or powerful politician goes to jail, or when a rival sports team loses.
There is a difference between reserved malice—an intimate personal feeling—and public malice, which manifests itself openly in mockery, irony, or sarcasm at the misfortune experienced by a third party.
Psychologists have long tried to understand how to better understand, explain and study this emotion: it occurs in such a wide range of situations that it can seem almost impossible to come up with some unifying structure. However, they tried to do it.
A lot of mischief
One problem continues to haunt those who study evil spirits: there is no universally accepted definition of its psychological nature. Different definitions point to separate aspects of evil spirits, each of which may have different origins.
Some scholars believe that it is best studied in the context of social comparison, so they tend to focus on how envy or resentment interacts with spite.
Others consider emotions through the lens of justice and injustice: whether the suffering deserved its misfortune.
Another group of psychologists believes that malevolence arises from intergroup dynamics: group members derive joy from the suffering of "outsiders"—those outside their group.
Grandiosity is also associated with intrapersonal features. Thus, self-esteem has a negative relationship with the frequency and intensity of bad luck felt by a person: people with low self-esteem, as a rule, feel bad luck more often and more strongly.
A self-confident person understands that, regardless of the circumstances, the successes and failures of another person will have little effect on their own status or well-being. Therefore, he has very little focus on how the other person lives, whether positive or negative in their life. Conversely, for a person with low self-esteem, a more successful person is a threat to their sense of self, and watching this person fall can be a source of joy and comfort because they feel an improvement in their internal state or position in the group.
In 2014, a study analyzed the relationship between malevolence and traits of the so-called "Dark triad" (narcissism, Machiavellianism and psychopathy). The results showed that those respondents who had higher levels of Dark Triad traits also had higher levels of malevolence, engaged in more antisocial activities, and were more interested in sensationalism.
Development of evil spirits in ontogeny
Perhaps, the authors of "Puzzle", deciding to throw "Magnificence" overboard, thought that it would be too difficult for children to understand.
However, there is evidence that children begin to experience the evil eye at an early age.
For example, at four years old, children found someone else's misfortune—such as tripping and falling into a muddy puddle—more amusing if that person had previously done something that had caused pain to other children, such as broke their toys.
Researchers also found that two-year-olds who were used to being jealous of a peer felt joy when that peer failed. By the age of seven, children feel more satisfied after winning a game if the opponent lost than when both won the game.
After all, in a 2013 study, nine-month-old babies watched dolls interact with each other. Some dolls "enjoyed" the same foods as babies, while others had a different set of tastes. When some dolls "hurt" other dolls, the researchers found that infants preferred to see dolls who did not share their tastes being hurt, rather than those who did.
Psychological model of evil spirits
Taken together, these studies show that malevolence is a complex emotion that appears to be deeply rooted in the human condition.
Psychologists Scott Lilienfeld, Philippe Rochat, and Shensheng Wang (Scott Lilienfeld, Philippe Rochat, Shensheng Wang) asked if there was a way to unify the many aspects of malevolence.
In their review, the researchers hypothesized that the more compassion someone feels for another person, the less likely they are to feel bad when that person is suffering.
Therefore, in order for someone to feel ill-will toward another person—whether a rival, an outgroup, or someone who has committed a crime—he needs to dehumanize him, at least part. Only then does the sufferer's misfortune become a reward.
The authors of the review consider misogyny as a form of dehumanization — the act of portraying and treating another person as subhuman.
Their model states that there are three subforms of malevolence — aggression, rivalry, and fairness. Each of them has deep roots in development and personal correlates that are revealed at an early age.
- Glory based on aggression is primarily related to group identity. Aggression stems from an earlier sense of social identity in childhood. The joy of observing the suffering of others arises because the observer feels that the other's failure is an improvement or confirmation of his own group's status in relation to other groups. This is, in fact, an omen based on group status.
- Glory based on rivalry has an individualistic character and is associated with interpersonal competition. Rivalry arises from the desire for social comparison. It arises from the desire to stand out and surpass one's peers. This form of malevolence is that another person's misfortune is gratifying because the observer now has a better sense of their personal identity and self-worth rather than their group identity.
- Justice-based gloating occurs because behavior seen as immoral or "bad" is punished. It is the pleasure of watching a bad person get hurt or get revenge. Glory is here experienced because it makes people feel that justice has been restored for a previously unpunished evil, and is a type of moral emotion.
Dehumanization plays a central role in both the detection of malevolence and the integration of its various aspects.
When most people hear the term "dehumanization," they probably think of the worst-case scenario: the complete denial of someone's humanity, a phenomenon relegated to torture camps, battlefields, and racist propaganda.
But this is a mistake. Psychologists have shown that people often view their own group from a more human perspective and thus may deny the full humanity of those outside their group.
Associating malevolence with dehumanization may seem bleak, especially since malevolence is such a universal emotion. But dehumanization happens more often than most would like to think, and it's probably what's behind the satisfaction you feel when you see someone fail.
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