CAREER: Understanding the Role of "Schadenfreude" in Intergroup Conflict

人们很容易将自己组织成社会团体，因为团体起着重要的作用。社会团体创造了一种归属感和安全感，它们有助于定义一个人的自我意识。社会群体在为“我们”创造归属感的同时，也能使其他社会群体成为“他们”。这种“我们”和“他们”之间的区别会导致冲突和竞争。此外，许多指标表明，群体间冲突正在上升。一种解释是，人们有时很难对其他群体的成员产生同理心。同理心确实解释了为什么人们会有帮助和合作的行为。但这并不能解释为什么人们会试图伤害其他群体的成员。这个项目关注的是一种不同的、鲜为人知的社会情绪——幸灾乐祸。幸灾乐祸是指人们对别人的痛苦感到高兴。当群体动态是竞争性的，在感知到威胁和“我们”对“他们”的情况盛行时，这种情况尤其可能发生。这个项目发展了一种观点，即幸灾乐祸是有害的群体间冲突的重要原因。更好地理解这种尚未得到充分研究的社会情感，为制定促进群体间凝聚力与和谐的干预措施奠定了更坚实的基础。该项目调查了幸灾乐祸对群体间伤害的重要性，并推进了对幸灾乐祸盛行的认知机制的基本理解。一组研究确定了同理心和幸灾乐祸是否都需要相同的认知成分，比如换位思考。第二组研究评估了威胁在感到幸灾乐祸中的重要性，操纵了对群体间威胁的感知增加是否也会增加对外部群体的幸灾乐祸程度。最后一组研究考察了幸灾乐祸和参与群体间伤害的意愿之间的联系。该项目的重点是将研究和教育结合起来，包括培训少数民族科学家，与注重公平和社会正义的组织合作，以及向跨学科社区传播研究成果。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

People readily organize themselves into social groups because groups serve an important function. Social groups create a sense of belonging and safety, and they help define a person's sense of who they are. Although creating a sense of belonging for "us", social groups can also make other social groups into "them." This distinction between "us" and "them" can lead to conflict and competition. Furthermore, numerous indicators suggest that intergroup conflict is on the rise. One explanation is that people sometimes struggle with feeling empathy for members of other groups. Empathy does indeed explain why people engage in helpful and cooperative behavior. But it does not explain why people seek to harm members of other groups. This project focuses on a different and less understood social emotion called schadenfreude. Schadenfreude is when people feel good at another person's pain. It is especially likely to occur when group dynamics are competitive, and it thrives under perceived threat and when "us" versus "them" conditions prevail. This project develops the idea that schadenfreude is a significant cause of harmful intergroup conflict. A better understanding of this under-studied social emotion creates a stronger foundation for developing interventions that promote intergroup cohesion and harmony.This project investigates the importance of schadenfreude to intergroup harm and advances basic understanding of the cognitive mechanisms that allow schadenfreude to flourish. One set of studies identify whether empathy and schadenfreude both require the same cognitive components, such as perspective taking. A second set of studies assesses the importance of threat in feeling schadenfreude, manipulating whether increased perceptions of intergroup threat also increase the level of schadenfreude felt towards outgroups. A final set of studies examine the connection between schadenfreude and willingness to engage in intergroup harm. A strong emphasis of the project is an integration of research and education, including training minoritized scientists, collaborating with organizations focused on equity and social justice, and disseminating research to interdisciplinary communities.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.