Schadenfreude

Hey everyone!

Some of you might have heard the term "schadenfreude" before. This is a German word that means essentially "pleasure derived from the misfortune of others." Essentially, people feel good about themselves when they see other people in a worse situation.

There's a song from the musical Avenue Q that explores this topic, appropriately named "Schadenfreude." It takes the concept a little bit further, to the point where the characters actually inflict bad situations upon other people in order to cheer themselves up. It's a great song, and I've embedded it below.

This concept of schadenfreude is strikingly similar to the concept of downward social comparison, which is a technique people unknowingly use when they're in a negative situation to make themselves feel better, by way of comparing their situation to a worse one (Wills, 1981). When I first encountered the term in the reading, that song was my first reaction, and I knew I had to mention it.

Moving on, another concept I found interesting was self-monitoring. Having a high level of this personality trait, coined by Mark Snyder (1987), means that a person can modify their behavior depending on their social situation. For example, a person at a job interview might not let his politically incorrect sense of humor shine through, in order to make sure the interviewer isn’t offended. In contrast, people low in self-monitoring tend to act the same in every social situation. They would have a hard time holding back and not letting their true self show.

Personally, I am a high self-monitor. When Dr. G brought up how high-self-monitorers dislike using Facebook for fear of all their friends seeing a single, unified persona, it made complete sense to me. I had never been able to put into such clear words why I was never a huge fan of Facebook.

It also reminded me of a conversation I had with a friend of mine back in high school. She told me that it really bothered her that I acted differently around different people. I thought to myself, well of course I act differently around different people, they’re different people! They find different things funny or offensive, or have different inside jokes with me, so why would I try to behave identically in front of everyone?

Naturally, I said none of these things to her, because she was an easily-offended person who would not understand my position, so I just apologized and let her rant.

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P.S. Here's a link to the song "Limelight" by Rush that Dr. G mentioned in class about self-monitoring. I'm one of the three people who raised their hands in class about liking them, and can’t pass up an opportunity to share one of my favorite bands with people.

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Festinger, L. (1954). A theory of social comparison processes. Human Relations, 7, pp. 117–140.

Snyder, M. (1987). Public appearances/private realities: The psychology of self-monitoring. New York: Freeman.

Wills, T. A. (1981). Downward comparison principles in social psychology. Psychological Bulletin, 90, 245–271. doi: 10.1037/0033-2909.90.2.245

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