The Misprediction of emotions in Track Athletics.: Is experience the teacher of all things?

People commonly overestimate the intensity of their emotions toward future events. In other words, they display an impact bias. This research addresses the question whether people learn from their experiences and correct for the impact bias. We hypothesize that athletes display an impact bias and, counterintuitively, that increased experience with an event increases this impact bias. A field study in the context of competitive track athletics supported our hypotheses by showing that athletes clearly overestimated their emotions toward the outcome of a track event and that this impact bias was more pronounced for negative events than for positive events. Moreover, with increased athletic experience this impact bias became larger. This effect could not be explained by athletes’ forecasted emotions, but it could be explained by the emotions they actually felt following the race. The more experience athletes had with athletics, the less they felt negative emotions after unsuccessful goal attainment. These findings are discussed in relation to possible underlying emotion regulation processes

Investigating the role of time in affective forecasting: temporal influences on forecasting accuracy.

Using extensive diary data from people taking their driver's license exam, the authors investigated the role of time in affective forecasting accuracy. Replicating existing findings, participants grossly overestimated the intensity and duration of their negative affect after failure and only slightly overestimated the intensity and duration of their positive affect after success. Extending existing findings, participants accurately predicted a decrease of their affective reactions over time but underestimated the speed with which this decrease would occur. In addition, they showed greater forecasting accuracy for positive affect than negative affect when the exam was distant and greater forecasting accuracy for negative affect than positive affect when the exam was close. The motivational processes underlying these findings are being discussed. © 2007 by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc

When people fall from grace: Reconsidering the role of envy in Schadenfreude

Previous research yielded conflicting results concerning the role of envy in predicting Schadenfreude (pleasure at another's misfortune). Some studies showed that envy predicts Schadenfreude, whereas others did not. Results of the present research reconcile these opposing findings, by showing that envy is a predictor of Schadenfreude when the target is similar to the observer in terms of gender. These results suggest that envy predicts Schadenfreude when people are confronted with the misfortune of a relevant social comparison other. Copyright 2006 by the American Psychological Association

How choice architecture can promote and undermine tax compliance: Testing the effects of prepopulated tax returns and accuracy confirmation

Wilco W. van Dijk, Sjoerd Goslingaa, Bart W. Terwel, Eric van Dijk (2020). Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics

"Don’t mention the war": Social identification and salience of rivalry as determinants of intergroup schadenfreude

Research on schadenfreude as a discordant emotional reaction to the misfortune, suffering or failure of others has predominantly focused on the interpersonal level. However, schadenfreude may also be evoked following a misfortune of another group or nation. For example, the Dutch experienced satisfaction and joy when their historic rival Germany was defeated by Croatia in the 1998 Soccer World Cup (Leach, Spears, Branscombe, & Doosje, 2003). We argue that, when studying schadenfreude at the intergroup level, people’s strength of social identification with groups (Tajfel & Turner, 1979), and in particular their affective social identification (Ellemers, Kortekaas, & Ouwerkerk, 1999), is an important factor to take into consideration. When people identify strongly with their own group and weakly with another, suffering group, they will experience more schadenfreude. Furthermore, we argue that this is likely to occur in situations that are characterized by salience of intergroup rivalry or competition. Accordingly, the results of an experimental survey demonstrate that salience of rivalry increases schadenfreude following outgroup failure among both Dutch and Germans. Moreover, this effect was fully mediated by relative affective identification with one’s own group. That is, salience of rivalry increased ingroup identification and at the same time decreased outgroup identification. Relative identification subsequently determined intergroup schadenfreude. However, it should be noted that these effects were stronger for male than female respondents. Additional findings suggest that intergroup schadenfreude can be reduced by intergroup contact

Why we experience schadenfreude when watching "Idols": The self-enhancing properties of another’s misfortune in the media

In the media we are often confronted with reports about the misfortunes of others. Indeed, the frequency of such bad news-reports far outweighs that of reports of good fortunes. Hence, an important question is how we react to the mishaps, setbacks, or downfalls of others in the media. It has long been assumed that people will show negative emotions (e.g., sadness, disappointment) following reports of misfortune or suffering of others. However, we are not the most noble of creatures. That is, we sometimes experience malicious pleasure following the misfortune of others. The German word schadenfreude is used to describe this discordant emotional reaction. Previous research has identified several factors that influence the experience of schadenfreude. Studies demonstrate that schadenfreude can be evoked by misfortunes happening to people who are disliked (e.g., Zillmann & Knobloch, 2001) envied (e.g., Van Dijk, Ouwerkerk, Goslinga, Nieweg, & Gallucci, 2006) or resented (e.g., Feather, 1994). Furthermore, research has demonstrated a causal link between the perceived deservingness of, and responsibility for, a misfortune and the level of schadenfreude (e.g., Van Dijk, Ouwerkerk, Goslinga, & Nieweg, 2005; Van Dijk, Ouwerkerk, & Goslinga, in press). Although these findings are interesting, and tell us something about when schadenfreude is likely to be elicited, they tell us little about why we experience schadenfreude. According to Frijda’s (1988) laws of emotion, an event will only elicit positive emotions when it serves motives relevant to the self. What motive could possibly be served by the misfortune of others in the media? We argue that another’s misfortune in the media may often serve people’s striving for a positive self-evaluation or self-esteem, especially following a recent personal failure. Accordingly, a first experiment shows that students experience more schadenfreude when reading an article in a student magazine (SUM) about a misfortune befalling another student following a recent personal failure on a self-relevant task (i.e., a threat to one’s self-esteem) rather than when no feedback is provided. In a similar vein, a second experiment demonstrates that people experience more schadenfreude when watching an Idols-audition following a recent personal failure rather than a recent personal success on a self-relevant task. Moreover, the latter experiment shows that this effect is stronger for individuals with chronic low performance self-esteem, thereby providing further evidence for the self-enhancing properties of another’s misfortune in the media

"Why do we laugh at Idols?": Self-evaluation and schadenfreude following another’s misfortune in the media

In the media we are often confronted with reports about the misfortunes of others. Hence, an important question is how we react to the mishaps or setbacks of others. We may often feel sympathy, but sometimes we experience pleasure or so-called Schadenfreude following another’s misfortune. Frijda (1988) argues that an event will only elicit positive emotions when it serves self-relevant motives. In line with this notion, we argue that another’s misfortune may serve people’s striving for a positive self-evaluation. Accordingly, two experiments show that people experience more schadenfreude following another’s misfortune in the media after failure feedback on a self-relevant task rather than when no feedback (Study 1) or success feedback (Study 2) is provided. Moreover, Study 2 shows that this effect is stronger for individuals with chronic low self-esteem, thereby providing further evidence for a self-enhancing motive underlying the experience of schadenfreude following another’s misfortune in the media

Building versus maintaining a perceived confidence-based tax climate: Experimental evidence

A confidence-based climate between public administrations and citizens is essential. This paper argues and provides empirical evidence that depending on the perceived interaction history, different policies are needed to build versus maintain confidence. Applying the extended Slippery Slope Framework of tax compliance, an online and a laboratory experiment were conducted to explore whether tax authorities’ coercive and legitimate power have different effects depending on whether they are situated in an antagonism-based or confidence-based climate. Results showed that in an antagonism-based interaction climate, a combination of high coercive and high legitimate power changed the climate into a confidence-based interaction climate. In contrast, in a confidence-based climate the same power combination did not maintain but erode the climate. Results also suggest that confidence-based climates are maintained by low coercive power combined with high legitimate power. The paper concludes that interaction climates operate as psychological frames which guide how policy instruments affect taxpayers’ trust in the tax authorities