The Association of Zero-Sum Reasoning and Deservingness With the Understanding of Envy and Schadenfreude in Childhood: An Experimental Study / La asociación del razonamiento de suma cero y el merecimiento con la comprensión de la envidia y la schadenfreude en la infancia: un estudio experimental

Abstract

To examine whether zero-sum reasoning is related to children’s envy-schadenfreude responses, we asked participants (N = 178, aged five to 11 years, 90 girls) about the characters’ emotions in four stories depicting situations of upward social comparison—envy. When the envied person loses the advantage (in one condition it is deserved, in the other it is not) the envious person either gains it—in the “You lose, I win” condition—or does not gain it and the two become equal—in the “Nobody wins” condition. The results show that schadenfreude attribution is greater when the envied person’s loss means a gain for the envious person than when equality is restored and no one wins. Older children (aged eight and over), but not younger children, rated schadenfreude as more intense when the advantage was undeserved than when it was deserved. The analysis of the arguments provided by participants shows that the zero-sum principle predominates in children’s expectations in situations of envy.