Schadenfreude, or, pleasure caused by the misfortunes of others.

When other people suffer misfortunes, we feel sorry for them. Or do we?

More than we probably want to admit, we sometimes are secretly pleased. Does a Red Sox fan feel happy to see a Yankee fan miserable over a humiliating loss? Would a Democrat ever tire of watching replays of Mitt Romney's Etch A Sketch moments? Do you find yourself consuming the tabloid news, riveted by coverage of disasters in the gossip columns?

The German language has a word for this feeling, schadenfreude, or, pleasure caused by the misfortunes of others.

Most people feel uneasy taking pleasure in the misfortunes of others. Our parents gave us stern, shaming looks if we laughed when others got into trouble. Maybe this is one reason why there is no word for schadenfreude in some languages, such as English. Just because we don't have a label for it in English doesn't mean the feeling doesn't exist. It's very real, and you must have experienced it at some point in your life, or know someone who has.

So, why do we feel schadenfreude?

As Gore Vidal said : "It is not enough to succeed; others must fail." The emotion of pleasure-in-others'-misfortune (Schadenfreude in German) is generally regarded as morally evil. It is often considered to be less acceptable than envy, which is regarded as a deadly sin. It would appear to be morally more perverse to be pleased with another person's misfortune than to be displeased with another person's good fortune.

Indeed Arthur Schopenhauer argues that to feel envy is human, but to enjoy other people's misfortune is diabolical. For Schopenhauer, pleasure-in-others'-misfortune is the worst trait in human nature since it is closely related to cruelty.

A major reason for being pleased with the misfortune of another person is that this person's misfortune may somehow benefit us; it may, for example, emphasize our superiority. However, it is not sufficient to characterize pleasure-in-others'-misfortune as including our pleasure and the other's misfortune. There are three additional typical characteristics: (a) the other person is perceived to deserve the misfortune, (b) the misfortune is relatively minor, and (c) we are passive in generating the other's misfortune.

(a) A central feature of pleasure-in-others'-misfortune is the belief that the other person deserves her misfortune. For example, when stuck in a traffic jam, should a driver pass us on our right by driving on the hard shoulder, our anger will be replaced by pleasure when we see a policeman giving the driver a ticket. The belief that the other person deserves his misfortune expresses our assumption that justice has been done and enables us to be pleased in a situation where we seem required to be sad. Moreover, this belief presents us as moral people w The more deserved the misfortune is, the more justified is the pleasure. Norman Feather shows in a study of people's attitude toward the downfall of those in high positions that the fall was greeted with positive approval when the fall was seen to be deserved, but reactions were negative when the fall was seen to be undeserved.

(b) Another characteristic of pleasure-in-others'-misfortune concerns the minor nature of the misfortune. This characteristic is associated with the comparative concern prevailing in this emotion. Comparison is possible when the two parties are not too far apart, when they are considered to belong to the same comparative framework. Accordingly, pleasure-in-others'-misfortune is concerned with small differences. When the misfortune is severe, pleasure-in-others'-misfortune often turns into pity. For example, should our noisy, inconsiderate and snobbish neighbor find out that his wife is having an affair, we may feel some pleasure; however, if his daughter becomes seriously ill, we are more likely to feel compassion or pity. We can admit that in some circumstances the other's misfortune may be grave, but it is still not significantly graver than that caused by this person to other people-especially ourselves and those related to us. Some may be pleased when a brutal dictator is murdered, as many Romanians were when Ceauşescu was executed, because such a murder seems well-deserved given what Ceauşescu did to his people.

(c) Pleasure-in-others'-misfortune is associated with the passivity of the agent enjoying the situation. An active personal involvement is contrary to the rules of fair competition; it would present us as deliberately harming the other, and hence as not being the real winner in the ongoing competition. It may also be considered an offense; although the other person might deserve misfortune, or even punishment, we lack the authority to impose it. Typically, one of the greater contributions to the pleasure we take in others' misfortune is the feeling that the failure of our competitor is not due to our own wicked behavior. It is as if justice has been done in the spirit of the Talmudic saying: "The tasks of the righteous get done by others." This is a kind of unsolicited gift.

When we consider pleasure-in-others'-misfortune as pertaining to minor misfortunes and involving our belief that justice has been done and that we are not responsible for eliciting the misfortune, then this emotion is not so reprehensible from a moral point of view. The conventional view, which severely condemns pleasure-in-others'-misfortune, stems from considering cruelty and sadism as prototypical cases of this emotion. We have seen that this view is mistaken.

One reason comes down to the simple fact that we often gain from other people's misfortunes. Much of life involves competition. Napoleon advised, "Never interrupt an enemy when he is making a mistake." Misfortunes happening to rivals can level the competition. Any sympathy we might feel is mixed with the pleasing effects of the benefit that may come our way. Self-interest is a powerful motive, and it is only natural to feel good if we are gaining from an event, even if it is from another person's misfortune.

Schadendreude is a natural feeling, and there is little use in berating ourselves over its easy arousal. But let's not encourage it, either. Apparently, those who experience schadenfreude may also express willingness to harm a rival fan or group. So let's keep schadenfreude in check.

 H. Smith is professor of psychology at the University of Kentucky and author of "The Joy of Pain: Schadenfreude and the Dark Side of Human Nature (Oxford University Press).