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Previous research (Smith et al., 1996) indicated that schadenfreude, pleasure at another's suffering, results when an envied person experiences a deserved misfortune. This study tested whether invidious comparisons affect schadenfreude when the misfortune is undeserved. Male participants watched a videotaped interview of an average or superior male student who had recently suffered either a deserved or undeserved setback. Participants' envy enhanced schadenfreude regardless of deservingness of the misfortune. The manipulation of deservingness, however, had no effect on schadenfreude. The effects of these variables on sympathy were also examined. Sympathy was greater when the student was average (vs. superior) and following an undeserved misfortune (vs. deserved), indicating that sympathy and schadenfreude are not simply opposites of each other.
Brigham et al. (Mon,) studied this question.