The Enjoyment of Other’s Misfortune
People in this world have a tendency to secretly smile at others mistakes or slip-ups. It’s a feeling we get when we know that we’ve done better than the other person or we are now ahead in a competition. We feel a gain of confidence or self-esteem because we simply are now better than the other person. So the reason I am researching this question is so I can see how people are selfish and maybe a little rude even though this feeling is normal for us.
LITERARY REVIEW
According to Psychology Today we seem to reach a feeling inside us that is considered to be less acceptable than envy. When others mess up we can benefit from it. For example, if the other team didn’t play good and my team ended up winning, their mess up or downfall helped us win the game. Another example would be if you were in a beauty pageant and the other girl trips and falls and you ended up being Mrs. America. Well their mistake helped you win the pageant. Also these situations or feelings reveal jealousy. We might have had a fight or an argument in the past with someone we dislike that makes us want them to fail even more. The author of this source Aaron Ben-Zeev, says that “the pleasure is associated with the passivity of the person enjoying it”. So the feeling that is considered to be less acceptable than envy might be a harmful feeling to experience.
While reading an article written by Richard Smith about feeling happy when someone has made a mistake, he concludes that “when the other side stumbles-- be it a political party or a sports team-- it’s natural to feel good”. One of the facts he writes in his article is that we gain from others misfortunes. We might gain ahead in a competition or we might gain an e...
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...sly is a stronger emotion than sympathy. My results also say that feeling a little happy when another person messes up is not a bad thing to feel. Most people chose sometimes that they like the feeling. Most of the ten people I surveyed said that it depended on the situation. So yes my results answered my question.
CONCLUSION
My answer to my question is that everyone in the whole world secretly smiles at others misfortunes. Some people benefit from it the situation, others might gain from it. That person that is smiling at the other guy might think everything is a competition or they just have low self-esteem. We feel relief when they fail and knowing we are better. I, myself think that when you feel this pleasure you don’t really notice it. It just happens, like we have no control over it. Its life and it’s a natural thing for us to feel this way sometimes.
In the moment neither of these feelings are amazing but in “Competition Makes a Comeback”, Caitlin Snaring shares that this was actually results in an outcome that is well worth it: “‘Losing made me want to win even more… got me fired up’ to win the 2007 contest.” (Kronholz 18). Because Caitlin felt upset after being eliminated at a 2006 geography bee, she realized that she didn’t want to feel like this again, and the only way for that to happen is to push even harder to reach goals. Without failure against others people assume they are the best or they are just a natural winner so they don’t need to try. This mindset automatically sets society up for failure, because with everyone just sitting back waiting for a trophy to be handed to them for anything and everything nothing would get done, and there is no way for everyone in a society to all win one way. Just imagine a computer engineer thinking they can release a computer that is only a small percent finished just because people loved their last
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there being a positive outcome of the whole experience. I guess that is a fact of life, some people
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In my opinion, it really depends on the situation to state if a “schadenfreude” is unethical. For example, I wouldn’t say it’s wrong to feel satisfied when your sibling gets in trouble for breaking something and blaming it on you. You know they deserved the punishment, for lying and affecting you personally. On the other hand, though, I think wishing misfortune on someone is an immoral act, but it is different for every circumstance. Another really important opinion I wanted to bring up is my belief that once murder or injury comes into the picture, you should not wish that on anyone. No one really deserves to be hated so much that you wish they were dead. After all, at birth, every human has the right to
Wong, S. (2009). Always look on the bright side of life ... Notes & Theories. Retrieved from: http://www.theguardian.com
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