Laughing at others and enjoying the news about the downfall of a politician, one does not agree with, or enjoying the social media feed that shows a misfortune of another person. These situations describe schadenfreude, “the pleasure at the misfortunes of others” (van Dijk & Ouwerkerk, 2014, p. 6). The term describes the joy (freude) about the damage or harm (schaden) experienced by another person. Despite the English term being a loanword from the German language, the emotion is known worldwide, with some languages having its own term. One thing is sure. Schadenfreude is experienced all over the globe. Based on literature review and small projects, this class will answer the following questions:
· Why do people publically enjoy watching the suffering of others?
· Which disruptive factors play a role when people feel schadenfreude? And:
· How can answers to the above questions contribute to a better understanding of globally digitalized communication, such as hate speech?