Schadenfreude, which it defined as, "delighting in others' misfortune". Many studies of schadenfreude are based on social comparison theory, the idea that when people around us have bad luck, we look better to ourselves. Other researchers have found that people with low self-esteem are more likely to feel schadenfreude than are people who have high self-esteem.
Brain-scanning studies show that schadenfreude is correlated with envy in subjects. Strong feelings of envy activated physical pain nodes in the brain's dorsal anterior cingulate cortex; the brain's reward centers, such as the ventral striatum, were activated by news that other people envied had suffered misfortune. The magnitude of the brain's schadenfreude response could even be predicted from the strength of the previous envy response.
Know thyself, young men and consider the high road.
And the next time you see any of these 'wash-outs', tell them how you feel right to their face.
I'm sure they'll be all ears...
