Resentment, envy, schadenfreude, and sympathy: Effects of own and other's deserved or undeserved status

This study used deservingness theory (Feather, 1999) to investigate how perceptions by a low status observer that his or her low status is deserved or undeserved affects the observer's envy and resentment towards a deserving or undeserving high achiever, and schadenfreude and sympathy when the high achiever suffers a subsequent failure. Deservingness was manipulated by varying the amount of effort, high or low, that led to a low achievement or a high achievement. Participants were 197 undergraduates who role-played a deserving or undeserving low performing student. In this role they first responded to a scenario involving either a deserving or undeserving high achiever and then to a subsequent epilogue in which the high achiever suffered failure. Results showed that resentment about the role-player's low performance affected both envy and resentment towards the high achiever, and that both resentment about the high achiever's success and a wish to denigrate the high achiever fuelled schadenfreude about the high achiever's subsequent failure. Schadenfreude was not predicted by envy. Resentment and denigration were negative predictors of sympathy. Illustrations, Tables, References. Adapted from the source document.