The Facilitating Effect of Schadenfreude on Creativity

A Route to Insight via Another’s Pain: The Facilitating Effect of Schadenfreude on Creativity. Sara L. Wheeler-Smith, Amir Erez, and Elisabeth Kristin Gilbert. Organizational Behavior, http://proceedings.aom.org/content/2017/1/10464.short

Abstract: The present research investigates whether experiencing schadenfreude – the malicious pleasure felt at another’s misfortune – enhances creativity. Across four studies (n = 632), we found that incidental schadenfreude enhanced individuals’ performance on insight creativity tasks. These effects are present both when schadenfreude is elicited in situ (Experiments 1, 2, and 3) and when participants recall experiencing schadenfreude (Experiment 4), and across multiple behavioral measures of creativity. In Experiment 3, we found that the facilitating effect of schadenfreude could be partially explained by schadenfreude freeing attentional resources. In Experiment 4, we found that the relationship between schadenfreude and creativity was moderated by trait approach motivation, such that the creativity-facilitating effect of schadenfreude was significantly stronger for those low (versus high) in approach motivation. Theoretical contributions to the literatures on schadenfreude and creativity are discussed.