A new study has demonstrated that kids as young as two enjoy the misfortune of others.
The study conducted at the University of Haifa found that Schadenfreude which is an emotion of joy in the face of someone else's misfortune is found in kids as early as possible.
Prof. Simone G. Shamay-Tsoory, of the University of Haifa's Psychology Department, who led the study, said that the study strengthened the perception that schadenfreude was an evolutionary mechanism that develops within them as they cope with situations of inequality.
Prof. Shamay-Tsoory, along with Dorin Ahronberg-Kirschenbaum of the University of Haifa's School of Education, and Nirit Bauminger-Zviely of Bar Ilan University, sought to determine whether such an emotion exists even earlier, at ages 2 to 3 and to do this, the researchers set up 35 groups comprising a mother, her child, and a friend of the child who is the same age. The groups were subjected to two situations.
The first was an "equal" situation, in which the mother encouraged the children to play together, ignored them for two minutes, and then began to read a book aloud to herself for two minutes.
After those two minutes, the mother was told to take a glass of water that was on the table and pour it by "accident" on the book. In the second, "unequal" situation, after the first two minutes the mother took the child that wasn't hers on her lap and began reading the book aloud to him or her. Here, too, after two minutes, the mother spilled the cup of water on the book.
The researchers found that when the unequal situation was brought to an end, the mother's own child showed visible signs of happiness, as expressed by jumping up and down, clapping his hands, or rolling on the floor and contrast, when the water was spilled while the mother was reading the book to herself, there were no similar reactions.
According to the researchers, the "misfortune" that made the children happy was the fact that their peer had stopped hearing the story, which strengthens the theory that schadenfreude is a social development that is a reaction to inequality.