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Scientific evidence shows that people take pleasure in others' pain, a study claims.
A collection of four experiments showed biological and self-reported evidence that people experienced happiness when someone they were jealous of or despised had something negative happen to them.
The phenomenon is known as "Schadenfreude."
The first experiment measured subjects' physical responses to various people and situations. The participants had their cheek movements monitored with an electromyogram (EMG), which measures the electrical activity of facial movements when a person smiles.
The participants were shown photos of various stereotypical people: the elderly (pity), students or Americans (pride), drug addicts (disgust) and rich professionals (envy). Then, the photographs were paired with a positive, neutral or negative events like winning five dollars, going to the bathroom or getting soaked by a taxi. The subjects were then asked how they would feel if this event happened to the person in the picture.
No matter what people said, the scientists saw that people tended to smile more when something negative happened to the rich individuals.
originally posted by: corsair00
My friend and I jokingly call ourselves Debbie and Dashawn Downer. We are fans of dark comedy. It's funny like that SNL skit Debbie Downer, where everything is always miserable but they make a joke out of it. Surprisingly, even people with insanely ridiculous lives filled with one #storm after another can still themselves be totally hilarious overall just because of their personality. Even during an episode where I am having the worst day ever, I can still find a way to find something amusing in it.