Schadenfreude After Watching the News: How Audiences Respond to Media Coverage of Partisans Disclosing Illnesses

Myrick, Jessica Gall; Chen, Jin

doi:10.1177/10776990211008534

Cited by 14 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 60 publications

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“…For example, research shows that some people experienced schadenfreude (i.e., pleasure over another’s misery), such as when disliked dissenters contracted COVID-19 (Myrick & Chen, 2021) or those spurning the vaccine passed away (Baker-Jordan, 2021). Contempt for others based on a judgment of their immoral actions is a known predictor of schadenfreude (Berndsen & Tiggemann, 2020), and feeling schadenfreude predicts decreased willingness to engage in prevention behaviors, including COVID-19 prevention (Myrick & Chen, 2021). As such, future work may examine the potential interplay of schadenfreude and stigma associated with following (or not) public health recommendations.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While we expect the model to generalize to emerging stigmas on other health conditions, it is possible that COVID-19 may have unique features that exacerbated the strength of stable relationships or the fluctuations noted over time. For example, research shows that some people experienced schadenfreude (i.e., pleasure over another's misery), such as when disliked dissenters contracted COVID-19 (Myrick & Chen, 2021) or those spurning the vaccine passed away (Baker-Jordan, 2021). Contempt for others based on a judgment of their immoral actions is a known predictor of schadenfreude (Berndsen & Tiggemann, 2020), and feeling schadenfreude predicts decreased willingness to engage in prevention behaviors, including COVID-19 prevention (Myrick & Chen, 2021).…”

Section: Limitations and Future Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Longitudinal study of an emerging COVID-19 stigma: Media exposure, danger appraisal, and stress.

Smith¹,

Zhu²,

Martin³

et al. 2023

Stigma and Health

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Media coverage of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has played a critical role throughout the pandemic: sharing news about the novel virus, policies and practices to mitigate it, and the race to create and distribute vaccines. The media coverage, however, has been critiqued as stigmatizing. Although this critique is not new, there is limited understanding of how and why new stigmas emerge from exposure to media coverage. Drawing upon the model of stigma communication (Smith et al., 2019) and the attribution model of stigma (Corrigan et al., 2003), we investigated a novel model of stigma emergence that delineates two kinds of longitudinal processes: (a) a message-effects process, in which exposure to mediated messages about COVID-19 leads to public stigma through danger appraisal and (b) a coping process in which stress and rumination shape later perceptions of public stigma. To test the model, we tracked an emerging COVID-19 stigma with a two-wave survey of a prospective, longitudinal cohort living in one county in a mid-Atlantic state (N = 883). The results supported this model. The longitudinal processes of stigma emergence and implications for COVID-19 stigma are discussed.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Limitations and Future Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Longitudinal study of an emerging COVID-19 stigma: Media exposure, danger appraisal, and stress.

Smith¹,

Zhu²,

Martin³

et al. 2023

Stigma and Health

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…State Schadenfreude . We used the state Schadenfreude scale (Myrick & Chen, 2022) to assess the pleasure participants experienced from the misfortune of the person described in the scenario. This is a four‐item questionnaire that has participants rate their agreement with the items (amused, satisfied, pleased, and sympathetic) on a 1 ( strongly disagree ) to 7 ( strongly agree ) rating scale regarding how they felt about the story that accompanied their randomly assigned stimuli.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Only one published study addressed Schadenfreude related to COVID‐19. Myrick and Chen (20) had participants complete positive and negative evaluations of US Senator Rand Paul (known for his stance against mandatory public health measures such as vaccinations) before reading a news report about him getting COVID‐19, and then participants completed a measure of Schadenfreude. Results showed that both positive and negative evaluations of Rand Paul positively predicted Schadenfreude.…”

Section: Schadenfreudementioning

confidence: 99%

Schadenfreude in the context of opposing vaccination statuses

Barlett,

Meier

2023

Euro J Social Psych

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Schadenfreude (experiencing pleasure at others’ misfortune) has been found in a variety of contexts and setting. We sought to determine if it occurred in relation to COVID‐19 vaccination status given the ingroup–outgroup nature of this factor. In three experimental studies, we asked participants to read about a pro‐ or anti‐vaccine physician who reportedly died from COVID‐19 complications. In Study 1 (N = 83 US emerging adults [39.8% male]) fully vaccinated participants experienced more Schadenfreude after reading the story about an unvaccinated (vs. vaccinated) physician. In Study 2 (N = 393 US adults [37.5% male]) we sampled vaccinated and unvaccinated participants who read about the death of a vaccinated or unvaccinated doctor, and results showed higher Schadenfreude when the participants’ vaccination status (e.g., vaccinated) was opposite of the hypothetical physician's (e.g., unvaccinated). Finally, results from Study 3 (N = 797 US adults [49.5% male]), which used a similar procedure to the previous study, replicated Study 2 and also showed that group identification with and perceived morality of the physician mediated the relationship between vaccination status and Schadenfreude.

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“…The Tall Poppy Scale was shown to predict interest in online achievement‐related information (Phillips et al, 2021 ). Similarly, the Schadenfreude associated with a disliked political figure's illness has been found to influence information seeking and health behavior (Myrick & Chen, 2022 ). Others have found that Schadenfreude contributed to the spreading of negative news online (Hornik et al, 2021a ; Hornik et al, 2021b ; Hornik et al, 2015 ; Hornik et al, 2019 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

High achievers, Schadenfreude and Gluckschmerz in New Zealanders and Chinese

et al. 2022

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The willingness to support (or denigrate) high‐profile individuals online was examined across cultures using the Tall Poppy Scale. A sample of 106 Chinese and 164 New Zealand Europeans answered an online questionnaire addressing their preference for high achievers to be rewarded or fail. Participants were asked whether they would vote to support reality TV contestants, and offered further information (about success or failure) on a debrief page. The Favour Reward scale predicted willingness to vote and support others. The Favour Fall subscale tended to predict time spent viewing achievement‐related information on a debrief page. The Chinese sample did not prefer reward of high achievers, instead favoring their fall, but spent less time per click on the debrief page, suggesting they disliked recognizing individual achievement.

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Schadenfreude After Watching the News: How Audiences Respond to Media Coverage of Partisans Disclosing Illnesses

Cited by 14 publications

References 60 publications

Longitudinal study of an emerging COVID-19 stigma: Media exposure, danger appraisal, and stress.

Longitudinal study of an emerging COVID-19 stigma: Media exposure, danger appraisal, and stress.

Schadenfreude in the context of opposing vaccination statuses

High achievers, Schadenfreude and Gluckschmerz in New Zealanders and Chinese

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