Envy and pleasure do go together
13 February 2009
The part of the brain that processes feelings of reward is more active when an envied person suffers a misfortune, than when the unfortunate individual is not the object of envy. The finding comes from a brain activity study focused on Schadenfreude, the name given to pleasure derived from another’s misfortune. The study results are published in Science.
The Schadenfreude study was led by Dr Hidehiko Takahashi of Tokoyo Medical and Dental University in Japan. Dr Dean Mobbs of the Medical Research Council Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit in Cambridge, a co-author on the paper, said:
‘‘We captured images of what happens in the brain when a person feels pleasure as the result of another’s misfortune. The results clearly showed increased activation in the greater ventral striatum, a region implicated in many types of reward.’’
The team used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to gather the data. This works by measuring blood flow to different parts of the brain and producing a corresponding image to show where in the brain cells are busiest when responding to different scenarios.
The results show that the part of the brain that deals with thoughts about pain, known as the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC), also processes envy. And that activity in the dACC is greatest the more superior an envied person is perceived to be.
Brain activity of student volunteers was analysed to determine the effects of envy and whether Schadenfreude has a biological basis. When the most envied student suffered a misfortune, activity in the greater ventral striatum was highest. The researchers believe this reveals that envy does have neuro-cognitive mechanisms, meaning that there is brain activity linked to such thoughts, and that social comparisons are central to the processing of these emotions by the brain.
Dr Mobbs explained: ‘‘These findings frame a theory that envy is a condition in which a person experiences cognitive aspects of pain, and that this pain is relieved when something unfortunate happens to an envied person: that is, Schadenfreude occurs.’’ Dr Mobbs added: “For example, the bragging neighbour who loses his expensive new car during the economic downturn would presumably make most people feel some satisfaction.”
Original research paper: When Your Gain Is My Pain and Your Pain Is My Gain: Neural Correlates of Envy and Schadenfreude is published in Science.
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