The face of schadenfreude: Differentiation of joy and schadenfreude by electromyography

Abstract

The present study investigated whether the facial expression of the social emotion schadenfreude, the pleasant emotion which arises in response to another’s misfortune, can be differentiated from the facial expression of joy. Schadenfreude was induced by videos displaying unsuccessful penalty shots of Dutch soccer players and joy by successful penalty shots of German soccer players. Thirty-two participants watched videos while the activity of four facial muscles was recorded electromyographically. Furthermore, they judged each stimulus according to valence, arousal, joy, schadenfreude and sadness. Electromyography (EMG) results revealed that schadenfreude expressions did not differ from joy with regard to involved muscles (increase of Musculus zygomaticus major and M. orbicularis oculi activity, decrease of M. corrugator supercilii activity, no activity change of M. frontalis medialis). Furthermore, facial reactions developed fast in both conditions and EMG indicated stronger reactions in the schadenfreude condition, but according to ratings participants felt more pleasure in the joy condition.

Keywords:

• Schadenfreude
• Facial expression
• Joy
• Electromyography
• Emotion

This work was supported by the German Research Foundation [grant number DFG WE2930/2-2].

This work was supported by the German Research Foundation [grant number DFG WE2930/2-2].

Notes

¹ The German national soccer team scoring a penalty (Germany vs. Argentina, World cup, 2006; Germany vs. Azerbaijan, World cup, 2010); the Dutch national soccer team failing in scoring a penalty (Netherlands vs. Uruguay, World cup, 2010; Netherlands vs. France, European Championship, 1996; Netherlands vs. Italy, European Championship, 2000).

² As Figure 1 shows, M. orbicularis oculi decreases in activity after kick onset in both conditions. So, testing against baseline is very conservative, explaining why M. orbicularis oculi does not significantly differ from baseline in the joy condition. But when testing muscle activity before result onset (1500–1900 ms) against activity after result onset (1900–3000 ms) a significant increase in activity is observed, t(31) = 2.38, p = .024, d = 0.21. Similar activity is found when testing against the last time interval before kick onset (1800–1900 ms); then M. orbicularis oculi activity reaches significance after 800–900 ms, t(31) = 2.13, p = .041, d = 0.24.