Kids Are Moralistic Jerks Because They Enjoy Schadenfreude Early

The philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer said, “to feel envy is human, to savor schadenfreude is devilish.” If he was right, then this might spell bad news for the children who took part in a recent study, published in the British Journal of Developmental Psychology.

For those who don’t know, schadenfreude is a German word that translates to “happiness at the misfortune of others,” at least according to Avenue Q. It is a guilty pleasure that any self-respecting human will admit to having felt on at least one occasion. Though many might try to pass the blame onto the inevitable jadedness that comes with growing old, this new study provides evidence for its insidious presence in the smiling faces of our cherubic youth.

In the study in question, the team of researchers read stories to children ages 4-8 that involved other children encountering misfortune in their pursuit of either morally sound or unsound goals. The researchers explored the relationship between the perceived “moral valence” of the characters in the stories and the participants’ inclinations towards sympathy, schadenfreude, and helping behavior.

There was evidence of both sympathy and schadenfreude in all age groups, and the researchers found that the perceived moralities of the characters in the stories were accurate predictors of the participants’ helping behavior. When the characters acted naughty and landed themselves into trouble, the real children were less likely to feel compelled to help, and more likely to say that it was funny. Likewise, when characters were deemed to have hearts of gold, the children felt for them in their times of trouble.

Age factored into the significance of schadenfreude and sympathy in mediating the helping behavior. Older participants were more likely to base their behavior off moral assessments of the characters. Though this may in itself be significant, bloggers at BPS Research Digest suggest it could also simply be a result of them having better understandings of the experimental procedures.

Given that sympathy was found more prevalently across the board, optimists can point this study as the green shoots of a moral compass appearing the young. But for Schopenhauer-esque pessimists, this study is just more concrete evidence that children are never innocent and, in truth, just tiny versions of all us big, terrible people, which is a perfect opportunity to take a little schadenfreude of your own.