Schadenfreude

Observations from the past two days have spurned my interest in the idea of schadenfreude. First, I had attended a workshop with elementary public school kids yesterday, and I noticed that they were very quick to laugh at and point out others' mistakes. Then today, I woke up to several videos and a Facebook page lambasting an individual for driving his car into a flood. Of course, these two events have different underlying mechanisms involving different sets of individuals, but both involve reveling in the misfortune of others, aka schadenfreude.

So I did a quick search on schadenfreude, and it seems that research on this focuses a lot on the disgrace of people of a higher status, and in terms of in-group vs. out-group. This gives some light to the second issue that I had mentioned. The person involved is a UP Law student, and allegedly graduated summa cum laude. I also remember seeing him campaigning for different USC positions during my undergrad years, but I did not personally know him. Given this background, it seems his status as a person of high academic achievement actually did him more harm than good. People are feasting on the idea that someone who should be so smart did something so ridiculous. Admittedly, driving one's car into a flood and blaming the MMDA for not giving a warning does not seem to make much sense. But to a certain extent, the latter action seems to be self-preservation at work. It's a very human reaction to one's own mistakes. As to the reaction to another's mistakes, this incident had been taken to a whole different level.

I am not absolving myself of schadenfreude. Sure, I snicker once in a while or judge someone under my breath over some error or another. And yes, I may also discuss such events with my friends and have a good laugh over them. But this is not what took place in the past two days. This person's mistake was made a much too public matter, possibly damaging the person's reputation and psyche in the process. I'm trying to avoid blame these days, but I think that GMA should have also been more responsible in their decision to air that interview. That, paired with the lack of controls on the internet was a sure recipe for disaster.

The case of the public school children I observed calls for a different perspective on schadenfreude. These children not only belong to a lower socioeconomic class, but were also handpicked by their teachers as problematic students. They belong to very large families, and go to a school with similarly populous classes. Perhaps their wrongdoings are much too frequently pointed out by their parents and teachers, and their accomplishments rarely noticed. With that kind of modeling, combined with the desire for attention within the environments that make them almost invisible, they too have become quick to point out others' wrongdoings. I know, it's an oversimplified statement of things. Maybe more local research has to be done on this to clearly lay out the variables that come into play.

On a final note, it's saddening that such a tendency to highlight others' mistakes is stereotyped as a Filipino characteristic, calling it talangka mentality. But in fact, it is humanity that is afflicted by this condition in varying degrees. What a contradiction we make as we are so quick to point out our own weaknesses as a people, including the one that puts the spotlight on the frailties of others. Why not try to pay more attention to the positive instead?