There are two types of envy; only one is associated with schadenfreude

You watch with envy as your long-time colleague gets yet another performance bonus - something you've strived for but never obtained. Not long after, you see him trip over in the office in front of everyone. Do you find this situation pleasingly amusing? In other words, do you experience schadenfreude?According to an international team of research psychologists, your answer will likely depend on the specific kind of envy you feel toward your colleague. Niels van de Ven and his co-workers say there are in fact two types - malicious envy and benign envy. Both involve comparing yourself to someone who is better off in a way that matters to you, but with malicious envy your focus is on the person and wishing they didn't have the advantage you covet, whereas benign envy involves greater focus on the object of your envy and how you might achieve it for yourself. In some languages, such as Dutch and German, they actually have separate words for these two types of envy.Malicious envy leads to schadenfreude, the researchers say, but benign envy does not. They demonstrated this in a series of three studies involving hundreds of people, one conducted in Dutch, the other two in English. The general format was the same throughout - participants recalled a situation in which they'd envied another person's achievement, and then they answered questions about the specific type of envy they'd experienced. Next they were asked to imagine the person they envied had suffered a minor misfortune an...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Authors: Source Type: blogs