How Collective Political Schadenfreude May Have Influenced the Outcome of the 2016 Election

In a rare foray outside of the world of television and film, Evan Puschak the Nerdwriter very insightfully analyzed the human need for schadenfreude (joy in another’s misfortune), specifically citing how the 2016 Presidential election was influenced by collective political schadenfreude on all sides.

If schadenfreude is a feature of in-groups and out-groups in competition it should be no surprise that it festers in our political parties where the victory of one side almost always means a defeat of the other. And studies of schadenfreude in politics bear this out. Intensity of party affiliation strongly predicts whether events produce schadenfreude in their members.