In the Pixar animated film 'Inside Out,' most of the plot plays out inside protagonist Riley's head, where five emotions – Joy, Sadness, Fear, Disgust and Anger – direct her behavior.
The film was released to glowing reviews. But director Pete Docter later admitted that he always regretted that one emotion didn't make the cut: Schadenfreude.
Schadenfreude, which literally means 'harm joy' in German, is the peculiar pleasure people derive from others' misfortune.
You might feel it when the career of a high-profile celebrity craters, when a particularly noxious criminal is locked up or when a rival sporting team gets vanquished.
Psychologists have long struggled with how to best understand, explain and study the emotion: It arises in such a wide range of situations that it can seem almost impossible to come up with some sort of unifying framework. Yet that's exactly what my colleagues and I have attempted to do.
Psychologists have long been baffled by this complex emotion seen as young as nine months
Schadenfreude’s many faces
One challenge continues to plague those who research schadenfreude: There's no agreed-upon definition.
Some think it's best to study the emotion in the context of social comparison, so they'll tend to focus on the way envy or resentment interacts with schadenfreude.
Others view the emotion through the lens of justice and fairness, and whether the sufferer deserved his or her misfortune.
Finally, the last group thinks that schadenfreude emerges out of intergroup dynamics – members of a group deriving joy out of the suffering of those outside of the group.
In our view, the different definitions point to multiple sides of schadenfreude, each of which might have distinct developmental origins.
The blossoming of schadenfreude
Perhaps the writers of 'Inside Out,' when deciding to jettison 'Schadenfreude,' thought that it would prove too difficult for children to grasp.
There's evidence, however, that children begin to experience schadenfreude early in life.
For example, at four years old, children found someone else's
