Concluding Commentary: Schadenfreude, Gluckschmerz, Jealousy, and Hate—What (and When, and Why) Are the Emotions?

Abstract

Schadenfreude, gluckschmerz, jealousy, and hate are distinctive emotional phenomena, understudied and deserving of increased attention. The authors of this special section have admirably synthesized large literatures, describing major characteristics, eliciting conditions, and functions (Chung & Harris, 2018; Fischer, Halperin, Canetti, & Jasini, 2018; R. H. Smith & van Dijk, 2018). We discuss the contributions of each article as well as the issues they raise for theories of emotions and some remaining questions, and suggest ways in which these might be profitably addressed.

Hate: Toward understanding its distinctive features across interpersonal and intergroup targets.

“…Considerable theorizing has described what hate is, how it develops, how it relates to other discrete emotions, and what its cognitive, motivational, and behavioral characteristics are (e.g., Allport, 1954; Brewer, 1999; Fischer et al, 2018; Kucuk, 2016; Royzman et al, 2005; Staub, 2005; Sternberg & Sternberg, 2008). Nevertheless, research testing this theorizing empirically is remarkably scarce (Halperin et al, 2012; Royzman et al, 2005; Sternberg & Sternberg, 2008), and only a handful of studies have focused on the differences between hate and other emotional experiences such as anger, fear or dislike (Fischer et al, 2018; Halperin, 2008; Roseman & Steele, 2018; Van Bavel et al, 2018).…”

“…Hate has been linked to attack action tendencies ranging from verbal aggression and hate speech to moral exclusion, physical aggression, and extreme violence (Chetty & Alathur, 2018; Opotow & McClelland, 2007; Sternberg, 2003). Alternatively, other studies have suggested instead that hate’s broader goal is to keep the targets out of one’s life, associating hate to avoidance-oriented action tendencies (Aumer & Bahn, 2016; Roseman & Steele, 2018). The distinctive action tendencies of anger, contempt, and disgust are less controversial.…”

Understudied Negative Emotions: What They Can Tell Us About the Nature of Emotions

“…Each article examines the antecedent conditions, appraisals, motivations, action tendencies, and functions of these affective states and compares them to closely related emotional states. The nature of these states is further considered in the concluding piece by Roseman and Steele (2018), who cogently chart out how jealousy, hate, schadenfreude , and gluckschmerz compare to potentially related emotions (joy, distress, fear, and anger). Other comments also raise intriguing possibilities about the function (e.g., van de Ven, 2018; van Doorn, 2018) of these states as well as the utility of studying them even if they are not distinct emotions (Hess, 2018).…”

“…Each of the target articles is accompanied by two comments along with author replies. The final piece (Roseman & Steele, 2018) analyzes all three target articles and serves as a conclusion to the special section.…”

A comparative glance on self-conscious emotions: A commentary on Kret et al. (2020)

“…Guilt has not been found to have a unique facial or bodily nonverbal expression but recent evidence suggests that people may frown, touch their necks, and try to repair when feeling guilty (Julle-Danière et al, 2020). Similarly, jealousy does not have a unique facial or bodily expression but may be expressed through bids for attention, putting oneself between a rival and loved one, surveillance, and aggression (Roseman and Steele, 2018).…”