do you rub your hands in glee if an acquaintance fails to land their dream job? or chuckle when someone spills their coffee down their white shirt? if so, then it could be because you’ve got low self-esteem, according to researchers.
enjoying someone else’s misfortune is known as schadenfreude and scientists from leiden university in the netherlands say that the lower your self-esteem, the more you’ll experience it.
‘if somebody enjoys the misfortune of others, then there's something in that misfortune that is good for the person,’ said study researcher wilco w van dijk.
van dijk and his colleagues drew their conclusions after testing 70 undergraduates by asking them to read two interviews, reports livescience.
the first was about an ambitious student who was aiming to secure a dream job. the second was a chat with his supervisor who revealed that his academic success had been extremely patchy and that he wouldn't be offered the role.
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