Joy, schadenfreude, sorrow, and resentment as responses restoring balance in cognitive units

Agnieszka Pietraszkiewicz , Bogdan Wojciszke

Abstract

Based on Heider’s (1958) balance theory we hypothesize that emotional responses to other persons’ outcomes depend on attitudes towards these persons. Positive attitudes towards others lead to empathic responses to their outcomes – joy after a success and sadness after a failure. Negative attitudes toward others result in paradoxical responses to their outcomes – negative responses to a success (envy/resentment) and positive responses to a failure (schadenfreude). These emotions function as responses restoring balance within cognitive units consisting of perceiver, other persons and their outcomes. Three studies supported these hypotheses. Keywords: Schadenfreude, Resentment, Envy, Empathy, Balance