Partisan Schadenfreude: What It Is And How It Affects Politics
In some contexts of society, groups with very different and sometimes even totally opposite tendencies are formed.
But in some cases, such as at the political level, these differences translate into true hatred between some people. So phenomena such as partisan schadenfreude arise which we are going to analyze in this article to know its operation and causes.
To understand what partisan schadenfreude is, we must first stop 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 by 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 regodeo or regodearse. In any case, we are talking about the opposite of compassion for other people.
Continuing with the characteristics of the first term of partisan schadenfreude, we must know that this emotion is more common in children, although that does not mean that adults do not experience it on certain occasions, as we will see later. What is true is that adults are more skilled at hiding this feeling, since it is not socially accepted in many areas.
Etymologically, The word schadenfreude literally means joy (freude) at harm (schaden) There is a term in Greek that attempts to make a literal translation of this German word, and it is epicaricacia. The German philosopher Schopenhauer already mentioned the concept of schadenfreude, stating that envy was a natural feeling in man, but enjoying the evil of others was something monstrous.
Let us now turn to the second part of the expression partisan schadenfreude. 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 now in a position to unite both definitions to arrive at the total meaning of this concept, which would be the enjoyment of the misfortunes suffered by members of the political party of a sign opposite to that of the person who experiences it. That is, it is the satisfaction a person feels when a political member or supporter of a rival party is involved in misfortune or humiliation
Partisan schadenfreude in American politics
In order to delve deeper 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 so-called partisan schadenfreude and, if so, what influences it has on their feelings and decisions at the electoral level. For it, The opinions regarding four major issues that affected the 2020 elections were analyzed
These blocks were, first of all, everything related to health care. Then, the proposals regarding taxes. The third topic studied was that which had to do with policies to combat climate change. And, finally, the entire block referring to the measures adopted to combat the global COVID-19 pandemic was studied.
By studying voter attitudes in these four areas, the authors concluded that partisan schadenfreude existed in the most extreme positions of each bloc. That is to say, People who had a polarized opinion on one of these topics usually expressed enjoyment of the suffering of people who thought exactly the opposite
Another revealing fact from the study is that those individuals who expressed partisan schadenfreude were more likely to express their political convictions as well as their favorite candidate than those more moderate voters who did not fall into these emotions of enjoying the misfortune of others.
Likewise, these people have a greater tendency to go to the polls to exercise their right to vote. Furthermore, one of the most surprising conclusions of this study is that voters who fall into partisan schadenfreude usually prefer that candidate whose policies are somehow guaranteed to cause the greatest possible damage to voters of the opposite sign.
In other words, those voters identified with partisan schadenfreude are always going to choose the option in which they believe there is a greater probability of causing harm, misfortune or humiliation to all those followers of the political party opposite to the one they defend An example 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 these types of aggressive policies that seek to harm the rival group. Therefore, that is the approximate percentage of individuals who practice partisan schadenfreude, or what is the same, taking pleasure in the ailment of the follower of the opposing political party.
There are basic motivations in human beings, and the search for pleasure is one of them. Partisan schadenfreude is a mechanism that activates brain circuits of pleasure in individuals who are feeling it. Returning to studies on US voters, it seems that a while ago the pleasure they got came from their party’s victories.
But in recent years the situation has become polarized. This is when the concept of partisan schadenfreude has come into play and the percentage of voters who enjoy the rival’s failures more than their own triumphs. Therefore, These people will experience more pleasure if the opposing party fails to pass a law, compared to the possibility of their party gaining support for a certain project
Schadenfreude in sport
We have explored the presence of the phenomenon of partisan schadenfreude, that is, pleasure in the failure or pain of one’s 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 undoubtedly sports, which is still paradoxical.
Indeed, in certain sports and especially among fans of teams with a certain historical rivalry, a kind of partisan schadenfreude can be observed by which each one practically enjoys the defeats and humiliations suffered by said rival team more than the victories of their own team. .
Logically, This feeling is magnified and reaches its maximum levels when both teams face each other in a direct duel, especially if said match is crucial for the achievement of a competition. In these cases, partisan schadenfreude can even generate physical violence among the most radical fans, so it is not surprising that intense police surveillance is required to avoid incidents.
Another study carried out 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, physical reactions were studied, and more specifically the activation of different parts of the brain in different situations related to their team and the rival.
It was observed that, when faced with the victory of one’s own team or the defeat of the rival, the ventral striatal region of the brain was activated. On the contrary, if the defeat of the home team or the victory of the opponents was witnessed (note that they are comparable events for these fans), said activation was detected in the insula and the anterior cingulate cortex.
Not only that, but in the first case, the level of activation detected for cases of victory of the own team as well as defeat of the opponents, and therefore of pleasure or partisan schadenfreude, was observed a high correlation with the probability that these people were capable of attacking a supporter of the opposing team, according to their own self-report
