The Enjoyment of Other’s Misfortune
People in this world have a tendency to secretly smile at others mistakes or slip-ups. It’s a feeling we get when we know that we’ve done better than the other person or we are now ahead in a competition. We feel a gain of confidence or self-esteem because we simply are now better than the other person. So the reason I am researching this question is so I can see how people are selfish and maybe a little rude even though this feeling is normal for us.
LITERARY REVIEW
According to Psychology Today we seem to reach a feeling inside us that is considered to be less acceptable than envy. When others mess up we can benefit from it. For example, if the other team didn’t play good and my team ended up winning, their mess up or downfall helped us win the game. Another example would be if you were in a beauty pageant and the other girl trips and falls and you ended up being Mrs. America. Well their mistake helped you win the pageant. Also these situations or feelings reveal jealousy. We might have had a fight or an argument in the past with someone we dislike that makes us want them to fail even more. The author of this source Aaron Ben-Zeev, says that “the pleasure is associated with the passivity of the person enjoying it”. So the feeling that is considered to be less acceptable than envy might be a harmful feeling to experience.
While reading an article written by Richard Smith about feeling happy when someone has made a mistake, he concludes that “when the other side stumbles-- be it a political party or a sports team-- it’s natural to feel good”. One of the facts he writes in his article is that we gain from others misfortunes. We might gain ahead in a competition or we might gain an e...
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...sly is a stronger emotion than sympathy. My results also say that feeling a little happy when another person messes up is not a bad thing to feel. Most people chose sometimes that they like the feeling. Most of the ten people I surveyed said that it depended on the situation. So yes my results answered my question.
CONCLUSION
My answer to my question is that everyone in the whole world secretly smiles at others misfortunes. Some people benefit from it the situation, others might gain from it. That person that is smiling at the other guy might think everything is a competition or they just have low self-esteem. We feel relief when they fail and knowing we are better. I, myself think that when you feel this pleasure you don’t really notice it. It just happens, like we have no control over it. Its life and it’s a natural thing for us to feel this way sometimes.
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Oliver Burkeman, author of The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can’t Stand Positive Thinking and column writer for The Guardian, explores the human need to seek for happiness and its connection to the Museum of Failures in his article Happiness is a Glass Half Empty. Burkeman’s purpose to writing this essay is to give readers a new view on how to seek happiness – embrace negativity and expect the worst. Burkeman’s use of a friendly, almost informal tone to help relate to his readers is a brilliant attempt to catch his reader’s attention and hold it, therefore enabling the delivery of logic seem almost effortless.
Television and the visual culture are “creating new conceptions of knowledge and how it is acquired” (p. 145). Neil Postman in his book, Amusing Ourselves to Death explains the effects of television and visual culture on the youth education curriculum. Postman believed it necessary to warn society of the consequences of living in a culture dominated by television. As for my opinion on this matter, I do not agree with Neil Postman’s statements in regards to television and our youth’s education. I believe it is not the crisis Neil Postman makes it out to be.
Many people normally call the moment of satisfaction and joy happiness, but they cannot properly define what happiness is and how to pursue it. Happiness is not measureable. Happiness can be shared with others, but cannot trade. Once people are in a stage of being happy, they enjoy their work, achievements and even feel better than others; however, how are they sure that they experience happiness? Is crying an emotional expression of enjoying happiness? In the article “Ignorance of Bliss,” Steve Salerno, a freelance writer, discusses about the value of happiness and explains to people about the feeling of being happy. He interprets his arguments and provides examples to enhance his ethos, but his ideas are not sufficient enough to persuade
there being a positive outcome of the whole experience. I guess that is a fact of life, some people
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In the book, The How of Happiness, author and researcher Sonja Lyubomirsky sets her book apart from other self-awareness books by being the first to utilize empirical studies. She uses data gained through scientific method to provide support for her hypothesis. This hypothesis consists mainly of the idea that we have the ability to overcome genetic predisposition and circumstantial barriers to happiness by how we think and what we do. She emphasizes that being happier benefits ourselves, our family and our community. “The How of Happiness is science, and the happiness-increasing strategies that [she] and other social psychologists have developed are its key supporting players” (3).
You're checking out a book at the library, picking out some produce at the grocery store, or taking a walk in the park, and some assistant, shopper, or dogwalker catches your eye. It's happened to all of us, you notice someone, and when you have the chance to spark up a conversation, you turn it down. Even if you happen to see that same person again, your worries get the best of you. It seems as if you've seen that dashing smile a million times before. It all makes sense; you almost rehearse lines of what to say in your head while approaching them, and the best you can do is wave your hand awkwardly or flash a disappointed half smile. If more people could grasp the idea of how hard it is to get a second chance, how things don't always fall into place, and sometimes it's too late to get what you wanted, these sorts of situations wouldn't be a problem for much longer.
Suffering can be defined as an experience of discomfort suffered by a person during his life. The New York Times published an article entitled what suffering does, by David Brooks (2014). In this article, Brooks explains how suffering plays an important role in our pursuit of happiness. He explains firstly that happiness is found through experiences and then, suffering can also be a motivation in our pursuit of happiness. In other words, suffering is a fearful but necessary gift to acquire happiness. This paper is related to motivation and emotion, two keys words to the pursuit of happiness (King, 2010).
In my opinion, it really depends on the situation to state if a “schadenfreude” is unethical. For example, I wouldn’t say it’s wrong to feel satisfied when your sibling gets in trouble for breaking something and blaming it on you. You know they deserved the punishment, for lying and affecting you personally. On the other hand, though, I think wishing misfortune on someone is an immoral act, but it is different for every circumstance. Another really important opinion I wanted to bring up is my belief that once murder or injury comes into the picture, you should not wish that on anyone. No one really deserves to be hated so much that you wish they were dead. After all, at birth, every human has the right to
Wong, S. (2009). Always look on the bright side of life ... Notes & Theories. Retrieved from: http://www.theguardian.com
My observation took place at a table beside Starbucks and on the inside of the Cook Library at USM. I sat down and began to people watch, trying to find students doing everyday “student-like” activities. By “student-like”, I mean studying, looking for a book, typing papers, browsing the web, interacting with others, etc. As I started watching, I realized most people seemed to have happy expressions, in fact, my study showed that about fifty percent of the people being observed showed happy expres...
Only in recent years have psychologists begun to appreciate the benefits of happiness and positive emotion — benefits that include everything from enhanced creativity to improved immune-system function. Dr. Barbara Fredrickson at the University of North Carolina, a leader in the field of positive psychology, posed the question, “What good are positive emotions?” and came up with the following possibilities.