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The Effect of Malicious Envy on Schadenfreude When Schadenfreude Is Elicited Through Social Comparisons

Previous studies have investigated whether envy, particularly malicious envy, increases feelings of schadenfreude and whether this effect is evident in both gain and loss frames. However, as a social-comparison-based emotion, schadenfreude was not investigated through social comparisons in these pre...

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Autores principales: Lin, Huiyan, Liang, Jiafeng
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8711567/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34966330
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.769826
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author Lin, Huiyan
Liang, Jiafeng
author_facet Lin, Huiyan
Liang, Jiafeng
author_sort Lin, Huiyan
collection PubMed
description Previous studies have investigated whether envy, particularly malicious envy, increases feelings of schadenfreude and whether this effect is evident in both gain and loss frames. However, as a social-comparison-based emotion, schadenfreude was not investigated through social comparisons in these previous studies. Thus, the present study aimed to investigate whether malicious envy influences schadenfreude when schadenfreude is elicited in the context of precise and ambiguous social comparisons. To address this issue, participants in the present study were asked to play a monetary game with several other players. In the experimental condition, participants gained less or lost more than the other player; in the control condition, both the participants and the player gained little or lost much. Subsequently, the participants observed that the player encountered a misfortune, that is, gained less or lost more money than the participant. The results showed that when participants knew the exact amount of monetary gained and lost by themselves and the other player (i.e., precise social comparisons), malicious envy increased feelings of schadenfreude only in the loss frame rather than in the gain frame. More importantly, malicious envy turned out to reduce feelings of schadenfreude in both gain and loss frames, when participants did not know the exact amount (i.e., ambiguous social comparisons). The findings provide novel evidence that malicious envy does not always increase schadenfreude particularly when schadenfreude is elicited through social comparisons.
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spelling pubmed-87115672021-12-28 The Effect of Malicious Envy on Schadenfreude When Schadenfreude Is Elicited Through Social Comparisons Lin, Huiyan Liang, Jiafeng Front Psychol Psychology Previous studies have investigated whether envy, particularly malicious envy, increases feelings of schadenfreude and whether this effect is evident in both gain and loss frames. However, as a social-comparison-based emotion, schadenfreude was not investigated through social comparisons in these previous studies. Thus, the present study aimed to investigate whether malicious envy influences schadenfreude when schadenfreude is elicited in the context of precise and ambiguous social comparisons. To address this issue, participants in the present study were asked to play a monetary game with several other players. In the experimental condition, participants gained less or lost more than the other player; in the control condition, both the participants and the player gained little or lost much. Subsequently, the participants observed that the player encountered a misfortune, that is, gained less or lost more money than the participant. The results showed that when participants knew the exact amount of monetary gained and lost by themselves and the other player (i.e., precise social comparisons), malicious envy increased feelings of schadenfreude only in the loss frame rather than in the gain frame. More importantly, malicious envy turned out to reduce feelings of schadenfreude in both gain and loss frames, when participants did not know the exact amount (i.e., ambiguous social comparisons). The findings provide novel evidence that malicious envy does not always increase schadenfreude particularly when schadenfreude is elicited through social comparisons. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-12-13 /pmc/articles/PMC8711567/ /pubmed/34966330 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.769826 Text en Copyright © 2021 Lin and Liang. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychology
Lin, Huiyan
Liang, Jiafeng
The Effect of Malicious Envy on Schadenfreude When Schadenfreude Is Elicited Through Social Comparisons
title The Effect of Malicious Envy on Schadenfreude When Schadenfreude Is Elicited Through Social Comparisons
title_full The Effect of Malicious Envy on Schadenfreude When Schadenfreude Is Elicited Through Social Comparisons
title_fullStr The Effect of Malicious Envy on Schadenfreude When Schadenfreude Is Elicited Through Social Comparisons
title_full_unstemmed The Effect of Malicious Envy on Schadenfreude When Schadenfreude Is Elicited Through Social Comparisons
title_short The Effect of Malicious Envy on Schadenfreude When Schadenfreude Is Elicited Through Social Comparisons
title_sort effect of malicious envy on schadenfreude when schadenfreude is elicited through social comparisons
topic Psychology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8711567/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34966330
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.769826
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