Malicious joy: Sadism moderates the relationship between schadenfreude and the severity of others' misfortune

Sadism was established as a moderator of the relationship between the severity of others' misfortunes and schadenfreude. In Study 1, we measured sadistic personality traits, and afterwards, participants were presented with a video clip of a cyclist's accident that was described as having resulted in minor (low misfortune condition) or severe (high misfortune condition) injuries. Individuals high in sadism experienced greater schadenfreude in the high misfortune condition. Conversely, we found lower schadenfreude in the high misfortune condition for individuals low in sadism. In Study 2, we were able to replicate our findings while controlling for deservingness of the target person and impression management tendencies. Moreover, we manipulated the importance of the cycling race. In line with our expectations, race importance exacerbated the effects observed in Study 1. Results are discussed in light of theoretical and practical implications.