The ironic impact of schadenfreude: When the joy of inflicting pain leads to increased prosocial behavior

Abstract

The present work investigates a commonly used but heretofore unexamined donation appeal: a misfortune‐involving appeal. Misfortune‐involving appeals (e.g., dunk tanks, pie tosses) invite consumers to donate to inflict misfortune on others. The process via which such appeals operate remains unknown and guidelines for their effective design are nonexistent. We propose that misfortune‐involving appeals that invite consumers to inflict mild misfortune on deserving targets enable consumers to deliver interpersonal justice, thus eliciting schadenfreude. In turn, schadenfreude increases donation amounts. Six studies demonstrate such increases, establishing the mediating role of schadenfreude, addressing alternative explanations (e.g., licensing and sadism), and identifying boundary conditions. Theoretically, our work is the first to question a common prior assumption: that schadenfreude only occurs when consumers passively observe misfortune. Instead, we show that schadenfreude also emerges when consumers actively inflict misfortune. This finding refines the distinction between schadenfreude and sadism; we show that this distinction relies not on consumers' active/passive role, but on misfortune severity. Our findings expand the understanding of schadenfreude's role in the marketplace, opening the door for future research.