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The joy of pain and the pain of joy: In-group identification predicts schadenfreude and gluckschmerz following rival groups’ fortunes

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Abstract

Four studies examined how in-group identification in the domain of sports is associated with schadenfreude in reaction to another group’s suffering or gluckschmerz in reaction to another group’s good fortune. Schadenfreude increased as a function of in-group identification when the outgroup was a rival team rather than a non-rival team in Study 1. Study 2 showed that those who experience schadenfreude at learning of an outgroup player’s injury will also tend to feel gluckschmerz when they learn of the player’s recovery. Studies 3 and 4 replicated and extended these findings for both schadenfreude and gluckschmerz, and showed that neither the degree of severity of an injury nor the level of physical pain associated with the injury moderated the link between identification and both schadenfreude and gluckschmerz. Mediation analyses indicated that perceived in-group gain or loss, deservedness, and dislike were prime mediators of links between in-group identification and both emotions.

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Notes

  1. Outliers on schadenfreude and negative affect within the Oregon and Duke loss conditions were removed. Two participants scoring more than 1.5 times the interquartile range on schadenfreude in the Oregon condition were removed, while three participants more than 1.5 times the interquartile range on negative feelings over the Duke loss were removed. Including these observations eliminated the main effect of in-group identification on schadenfreude but the pattern of regression results was otherwise similar to those found for the data without outliers.

  2. Four outliers were removed from analyses on the basis of exceeding conventional cutoffs for at least two of the following measures in regressions of schadenfreude against in-group identification: leverage [cutoff = 3((k + 1)/n)], ESR (cutoff = ±3), and DFBetas (cutoff = ±1).

  3. Participants in this condition (n = 164) either read that the player would miss an entire season (n = 111) or would very likely never play basketball competitively again (n = 53). Results were very similar across these variants and thus we combined them to form a single severe injury condition.

  4. Neither of the two-way interaction terms nor the three-way interaction was statistically significant, ps > .30, so the interaction terms were dropped from the presence of schadenfreude model. The final model Cox–Snell R 2 was .15, p < .001.

  5. Neither of the two-way interaction terms nor the three-way interaction was statistically significant, ps > .50, so the interaction terms were dropped from the intensity of schadenfreude model. The final model R 2 was .16, p < .001.

  6. Dislike was a significant mediator in single-mediator models for both the presence of gluckschmerz, OR 1.18, 95 % CI (1.07–1.32), and the log-intensity of gluckschmerz when experienced, b = 0.04, SE = 0.01, 95 % CI (0.02–0.07).

  7. A modest-but-significant zero-order correlation between in-group identification and happiness over the pain was present, r = .12, p = .048, τ = .10, p = .031, but controlling for gender and general fandom reduced this effect to nonsignificance, r = .07, p = .22, τ = .06, p = .13.

  8. The strength of the associations between in-group identification and schadenfreude and gluckschmerz was descriptively higher among the subset of participants who read about a career-ending injury than for the other participants in Study 4; controlling for gender and general fandom, r schadenfreude = .35 versus .28, r gluckschmerz = .38 versus .34.

  9. In another study, we replicated the basic finding for in-group identification using a player for a different rival team, the University of North Carolina (UNC). (Kentucky and UNC are ranked 1 and 3 in total number of all time victories.) Ninety participants read an article indicating that Kendall Marshall of UNC’s men’s basketball team had successful surgery for his wrist, but would most likely be out for the rest of the NCAA tournament. Controlling for sport fandom, in-group identification was significantly related to schadenfreude in reaction to reading about Marshall’s wrist injury, b = 0.24, SE = 0.10, t = 2.35, p = .021; in single mediation analyses, perceived in-group gain, perceptions of deservedness, and dislike of UNC mediated this effect. Gain and deservedness were significant mediators in the multiple mediation analysis with all three potential mediators.

  10. In light of the close logical and empirical links between schadenfreude and gluckschmerz, one might question whether gluckschmerz occurs when one has not previously learned of a misfortune suffered by the other. A “satisfying” misfortune may set up a necessary contrast through a reversal of fortunes. To address this possibility, we conducted a follow-up to Study 3 in which we found that gluckschmerz can occur in the absence of a counter-expectancy (in this case, the belief that an outgroup player would remain injured). Participants read only the article about Rivers’ recovery. Controlling for general sport fandom, in-group identification was positively related to gluckschmerz (M = 1.49, SD = 1.62), b = 0.36, SE = 0.12, t = 3.02, p = .004. Gluckschmerz apparently does not require previous schadenfreude, nor is the previous experience of implied in-group gain due to an outgroup misfortune necessary to feel a sense of in-group loss when the outgroup benefits from a member’s renewed ability to actively contribute.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank John Martin, Crystal Neace, Alex Bianchi, and Chris Thompson for their assistance in data collection and entry.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Psychology Department, University of Kentucky, 0003 Kastle Hall, Lexington, KY, 40506, USA

    Charles E. Hoogland & Chelsea M. Cooper

  2. Psychology Department, Stevenson University, 1525 Greenspring Valley Road, Stevenson, MD, 21153, USA

    D. Ryan Schurtz

  3. United States Air Force, Wright-Patterson AFB, OH, 45433, USA

    Chelsea M. Cooper

  4. United States Navy, 100 Luna Park DR #415, Alexandria, VA, 22305, USA

    David J. Y. Combs

  5. Psychology Department, University of Kentucky, 316 Duke RD #4, Lexington, KY, 40502, USA

    Edward G. Brown

  6. Psychology Department, University of Kentucky, 207I-1 Kastle Hall, Lexington, KY, 40506, USA

    Richard H. Smith

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Hoogland, C.E., Ryan Schurtz, D., Cooper, C.M. et al. The joy of pain and the pain of joy: In-group identification predicts schadenfreude and gluckschmerz following rival groups’ fortunes. Motiv Emot 39, 260–281 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-014-9447-9

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