Schadenfreude partisan: what it is and how it affects politics

In some contexts of society, groups of very different and sometimes even totally opposite tendencies are formed.

But in some cases, such as at the political level, these differences translate into real hatred between some people. Then phenomena arise such as partisan schadenfreude, which we are going to analyze in this article to know its operation and causes.

• Related article: "Group identity: the need to feel part of something"

What is partisan schadenfreude?

To understand what partisan schadenfreude is, we must first pause for a moment to understand what the first element of this expression means, that is, the word "schadenfreude". This term is German and refers to the experience of joy or satisfaction on the part of a person or group because of the suffering or problems of someone external to him or them.

Therefore, this word refers to the pleasure or positive emotion that an individual would be feeling as a result of being aware of the humiliation or pain of others. It would be a concept close to sadism. A rough translation in Spanish would be gloat or gloat. In any case, we are talking about the opposite of compassion for other people.

Continuing with the characteristics of the first term of the partisan schadenfreude, we must know that this emotion is more frequent in children, although that does not mean that adults do not experience it on certain occasions, as we will see more go ahead. What is certain is that adults are more adept at hiding this feeling, since it is not socially accepted in many areas.

Etymologically, the word schadenfreude literally means joy (freude) over harm (schaden). There is a term in Greek that tries to make a literal translation of this German word, and it is epicaricacia. The German philosopher Schopenhauer already mentioned the concept schadenfreude, affirming that envy was a natural feeling in man, but the enjoyment of the evil of others was something monstrous.

Let us now come to the second part of the partisan schadenfreude expression. The concept of partisan, originally, referred to civilians who organized themselves into militias to fight against an army. But a more modern meaning would be that of those people who fervently follow the ideals of a political party. In fact, another possible expression to refer to partisan schadenfreude could be partisan schadenfreude.

After this first approach to both terms, we are ready to unite both definitions to arrive at the total meaning of this concept, which would be the enjoyment of the misfortunes suffered by the members of the political party of the opposite sign to that of the person who experiment. That is, it is the satisfaction that a person feels when a political member or supporter of the rival party is involved in disgrace or humiliation.

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Partisan schadenfreude in American politics

In order to delve into the implications of this peculiar phenomenon that is partisan schadenfreude, we are going to focus on a recent study about its presence in some voters of American parties, traditionally Republicans and Democrats.

This study, carried out by researchers Webster, Glynn and Motta, questions whether US voters fall into the called partisan schadenfreude and, if so, what influences does it have on your feelings and decisions at the electoral. For it, Opinions on four major issues that affected the 2020 elections were analyzed.

These blocks were, in the first place, everything related to health care. Then the proposals regarding taxes. The third subject studied was that which had to do with policies to combat climate change. And, finally, the entire block referring to the measures adopted to fight the global COVID-19 pandemic was studied.

Studying the attitudes of voters in these four areas, the authors concluded that partisan schadenfreude existed in the most extreme positions of each bloc. Namely, People who had a polarized opinion on one of these issues, usually said they enjoyed the suffering of people who thought exactly the opposite.

Another revealing data from the study is that those individuals who manifested partisan schadenfreude were more likely to express their political convictions as well as his favorite candidate than those more moderate voters who did not fall into these emotions of enjoyment of the misfortune of others.

Likewise, these people are more likely to go to the polls to exercise the right to vote. Furthermore, one of the most surprising findings of this study is that voters who fall into partisan schadenfreude prefer usually to that candidate whose policies in some way guarantee that they will cause the greatest possible damage to the voters of the sign opposite.

In other words, those voters identified with partisan schadenfreude always go to choose the option in which they believe that they are more likely to cause harm, disgrace or humiliation to all those followers of the political party opposed to the one they defend. A sample of the extreme polarization that governs the thoughts and behaviors of these individuals.

In statistical terms, it seems that between 5% and 15% of voters accept such aggressive policies that seek the damage of the rival group. Therefore, that is the approximate percentage of individuals who practice partisan schadenfreude, or what is the same, the joy with the ailment of the follower of the opposing political party.

There are some basic motivations in the human being, and the pursuit of pleasure is one of them. The partisan schadenfreude is a mechanism that activates brain circuits of pleasure in the individuals who are feeling it. Returning to the studies of voters in the United States, it seems that a while ago the pleasure they got came from the triumphs of their party.

But in recent years the situation has become polarized. It is then that the concept of partisan schadenfreude came into play and the percentage of voters who enjoy more with the failures of the rival than with their own triumphs. Therefore, these people will experience more pleasure if the opposing party fails to carry out a law, in the face of the possibility that their party will get support for a certain project.

The schadenfreude in sport

We have explored the presence of the phenomenon of partisan schadenfreude, that is, the pleasure of failure or the pain of the rival, in the field of politics. But this is by no means the only context in which we can observe this effect. One of the scenarios in which it would be most visible is without a doubt that of sports, which is still paradoxical.

Indeed, in certain sports and especially among fans of teams with a certain historical rivalry, a kind of schadenfreude can be observed. partisan by which each one enjoys practically more with the defeats and humiliations suffered by said rival team than by the victories of his own own self.

Logically, this feeling is magnified and reaches its highest levels when both teams face each other in a direct duel, especially if said match is crucial for the achievement of a competition. In such cases, partisan schadenfreude can even lead to physical violence among the most popular fans. radicals, so it is not surprising that intense police surveillance is required to avoid incidents.

Another study conducted in the United States analyzed the behavior of baseball fans, especially those who supported the Yankees team and those who supported the Red Sox. In this case, the physical reactions were studied, and more specifically the activation of different parts of the brain to different situations related to their team and the rival.

It was observed that, before the victory of the own team or the defeat of the rival, the ventral striated region of the brain was activated. On the contrary, if the defeat of the locals or the triumph of the opponents was witnessed (note that they are comparable events for these amateurs), said activation was detected in the insula and in the cingulate cortex previous.

Not only that, but in the first case, the activation level detected for the victory cases of the own team as well as of defeat in the opponents, and therefore of pleasure or partisan schadenfreude, I observe a high correlation with the probability that these people were able to carry out an attack on a follower of the opposing team, according to their own self-report.

Bibliographic references:

• Cikara, M., Botvinick, M.M., Fiske, S.T. (2011). Us versus them: Social identity shapes neural responses to intergroup competition and harm. Psychological science.
• Leach, C.W., Spears, R., Branscombe, N.R., Doosje, B. (2003). Malicious pleasure: Schadenfreude at the suffering of another group. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
• Smith R.H., Turner T.J., Garonzik R., Leach C.W., Urch-Druskat V., Weston C.M. (nineteen ninety six). Envy and Schadenfreude. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.
• Webster, S.W., Glynn, A.N., Motta, M.P. (2021). Partisan Schadenfreude and the Demand for Candidate Cruelty.