Schadenfreude? Or Just Lack Of Empathy?
Researchers have discovered the region in the brain where our empathy, or lack of it, resides:
[from This Is Your Brain on Schadenfreude - New York Times by James Gorman] Tania Singer at University College London and her colleagues, who published a schadenfreude paper in Nature, were not actually searching for schadenfreude when they used functional magnetic resonance imaging to watch the brains of subjects in action. Their primary interest was variation in levels of empathy, which can be detected by the activity in “pain-related areas” like the “fronto-insular and anterior cingulate cortices” of the brain when a person is watching someone else in pain.First the experimental subjects watched people playing a game in which some cheated (bad people) and others played fair (good people). Then they watched the same people suffering from a painful stimulus. The empathy circuits lighted up in both men and women when bad things happened to good people. When bad things happened to bad people, the women in the study were still empathic. But not the men. Not only did they show less empathy toward bad people, but the reward center in the left nucleus accumbens lighted up. All that translates as “Serves him right!”
I wouldn’t exactly call that schadenfreude, although Nature made it the core of its press release and most news coverage emphasized the big German word. Dr. Singer didn’t actually put the word in her paper, either, but in an interview she defended the idea that the emotion she was viewing came under the heading of schadenfreude. She did acknowledge that the word included other feelings.
Turns out men are less empathetic than women. Surprise, surprise. But this study is mistitled. Schadenfreude is the feeling that underlies slapstick: taking pleasure from the misfortune of others, like someone slipping on a banana peel. (There is supposedly a Japanese emotion, that we don’t have a name for, where you feel ashamed for others, which may be the complement to schadenfreude.)
I was chatting with David Hornik about this very thing the other day, strangely enough, so today he forwarded to me the Shadenfreude song from Avenue Q:
GARY COLEMAN: Right now you are down and out and feeling really crappyNICKY:
I’ll say.GARY COLEMAN:
And when I see how sad you are
It sort of makes me…
Happy!NICKY:
Happy?!GARY COLEMAN:
Sorry, Nicky, human nature-
Nothing I can do!
It’s…
Schadenfreude!
Making me feel glad that I’m not you.NICKY:
Well that’s not very nice, Gary!GARY COLEMAN:
I didn’t say it was nice! But everybody does it!D’ja ever clap when a waitress falls and drops a tray of glasses?
NICKY:
Yeah…GARY COLEMAN:
And ain’t it fun to watch figure skaters falling on their asses?NICKY:
Sure!GARY COLEMAN:
And don’tcha feel all warm and cozy,
Watching people out in the rain!NICKY:
You bet!GARY COLEMAN:
That’s…GARY AND NICKY:
Schadenfreude!GARY COLEMAN:
People taking pleasure in your pain!NICKY:
Oh, Schadenfreude, huh?
What’s that, some kinda Nazi word?GARY COLEMAN:
Yup! It’s German for “happiness at the misfortune of others!”NICKY:
“Happiness at the misfortune of others.” That is German!Watching a vegetarian being told she just ate chicken
GARY COLEMAN:
Or watching a frat boy realize just what he put his dick in!NICKY:
Being on the elevator when somebody shouts “Hold the door!”GARY AND NICKY:
“No!!!”
Schadenfreude!GARY COLEMAN:
“Fuck you lady, that’s what stairs are for!”NICKY:
Ooh, how about…
Straight-A students getting Bs?GARY COLEMAN:
Exes getting STDs!NICKY:
Waking doormen from their naps!GARY COLEMAN:
Watching tourists reading maps!NICKY:
Football players getting tackled!GARY COLEMAN:
CEOs getting shackled!NICKY:
Watching actors never reachGARY AND NICKY:
The ending of their oscar speech!
Schadenfreude!
Schadenfreude!
Schadenfreude!
Schadenfreude!GARY COLEMAN:
The world needs people like you and me who’ve been knocked around by
fate.
‘Cause when people see us, they don’t want to be us, and that makes
them feel great.NICKY:
Sure!
We provide a vital service to society!GARY AND NICKY:
You and me!
Schadenfreude!
Making the world a better place…
Making the world a better place…
Making the world a better place…
To be!GARY COLEMAN:
S-C-H-A-D-E-N-F-R-E-U-D-E!
[Pointer from Halley Suitt]
Source: stoweboyd.com
Erratic inquiries of Stowe Boyd, who means well, despite everything.
