THE IMPACT OF JUSTICE SENSITIVITY AND SOCIAL COMPARISON ON SCHADENFREUDE IN YOUNG ADULTS

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to inspect the impact of social comparison and justice sensitivity on schadenfreude in university students. The hypotheses of this study were, Schadenfreude would be higher when misfortune occurred to the students of the rival university (out-group), schadenfreude would be higher when the failure was perceived as deserved. The N=200 (50 each scenario) aged 18 to 27 were taken through convenience sampling. The measures that were utilized included the Schadenfreude Scale, the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (Rosenberg, 1979), and the Short Dark Triad Scale (Jones & Paulhus, 2013). 2-way ANOVA analysis was done, and the results showed that group comparison (in-group and out-group) had a non-significant impact on schadenfreude, while justice sensitivity had a significant effect on schadenfreude and the interaction effect of social comparison, and justice sensitivity was also non-significant.

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