Researchers from Princeton University discovered that the tendency to take pleasure in someone else’s failure—known as Schadenfreude—is biological. But it’s not just any Joe Schmo that provokes us. In the study, participants felt best about negative events happening to professionals they envied. Just because it’s natural doesn’t mean we’ll cop to it, which is exactly why the researchers checked cheek muscle activity to discover any physiological indicators of envy. The results were the same: participants smiled more when negative events (like being soaked by a puddle-skimming taxi) happened to rich professionals. More from Prevention: How To Accept Your Own Achievements But what makes someone the target of envy? “Enviable individuals have something we want, but they are not on our side,” explains study author Susan T. Fiske, PhD, professor of psychology and public affairs at Princeton University. “We don’t owe them any loyalty of pity, and we feel some satisfaction in them coming down a notch.” And it’s not just money—the key word when it comes to envy, says Dr. Fiske, is status. “Human societies always involve this mix of status and competition, so it’s not surprising that we envy successful competitors,” Dr. Fiske says. Of course, laughing at your boss when she wipes out won’t earn you a promotion, so try not to be too forthcoming with this all-too-human instinct.
