Multiple versus single immoral acts: an immoral person evokes more schadenfreude than an immoral action
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Multiple versus single immoral acts: an immoral person evokes more schadenfreude than an immoral action Mariëtte Berndsen1 · Marika Tiggemann1
© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract A small body of research has investigated the relationship between an immoral disposition and schadenfreude. Less work has investigated the relationship between immoral behavior and schadenfreude. The aim of the present study was to separate out dispositional and behavioral attributions by both manipulation and measurement and thereby to investigate individual pathways to schadenfreude. Participants (Study 1: N = 281, Study 2: N = 271) were presented with a scenario that described a single immoral act or multiple immoral acts. The latter resulted in greater attributions to dispositional immorality. Importantly, dispositional immorality attributions were found to predict schadenfreude, but behavioral immorality attributions had no independent effect on schadenfreude. The pathways to schadenfreude were partly mediated by condemning emotions directed at the person but not by condemning emotions directed at the behavior. These findings expand our understanding of the psychological processes that underlie schadenfreude. Keywords Schadenfreude · Behavioral and dispositional attributions · Fundamental attribution error · Other-condemning emotions
Introduction Mark is in a book shop. Through the window he sees a man taking his bike. Mark runs outside yelling “Stop the thief!” The thief cycles faster and faster and is unable to stop for a car that is turning the corner. They crash. Mark smiles and mutters something about deservingness and justice. Mark’s smile can be considered as an expression of schadenfreude, which occurs when people feel joy about another person’s negative outcome. The purpose of the present research is to investigate whether people distinguish between immoral disposition (e.g., being a thief) and immoral behavior (e.g., stealing) when they express schadenfreude about a person’s negative outcome. A small body of research has investigated the relationship between immorality and schadenfreude (Brambilla and Riva 2017; Feather and McKee 2014; Powell and Smith 2013). These studies have implicitly or explicitly guided * Mariëtte Berndsen [email protected] 1
College of Education, Psychology, and Social Work, Flinders University of South Australia, GPO Box 2100, Adelaide, SA 5001, Australia
attributions to the target person, not the behavior. The distinction between dispositional and behavioral attribution is important because negative dispositional attributions have more damaging consequences than negative behavioral attributions. For example, dispositional attributions are more likely to evoke negative reactions such as blaming people for their actions (Alicke 2000) and provoke conflict (Sadler et al. 2005). In addition, dispositional attributions can lead to incorrect explanations for complex problems (Alcock et al. 1991). In the present research w
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