Resentment, envy, schadenfreude, and sympathy: Effects of own and otherʹs 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.