Ripples of contempt: aversive responses to others (mis)fortunes

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

3 Scopus citations

Abstract

In this short commentary we argue that feelings of contempt play a major role in schadenfreude (joy in the misfortunes of others) and “reverse schadenfreude”—gluckschmerz (sadness at the fortunes of others). We used qualitative mixed-mode comparative analysis of the major characteristics/features of negative sentiments, to explore a possible link between contempt and schadenfreude and gluckschmerz. Findings, especially from the political partisan polarization literature have shown that the investigated sentiments share many of their important characteristics, suggesting a possible relationship in the form of higher level of contempt possibly triggering a higher level of schadenfreude and gluckschmerz.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)809-817
Number of pages9
JournalMotivation and Emotion
Volume45
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 2021

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.

Keywords

  • Contempt
  • Gluckschmerz
  • Schadenfreude

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Ripples of contempt: aversive responses to others (mis)fortunes'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this