Photo: Flickr/Moyan Brenn
And who better to answer this burning question than... a group of German scientists?! To determine if a person's facial expression is different when one is feeling plain ol' happy vs. happy because of others' misfortunes, the scientists had a group of subjects watch soccer and then measured the activation of their facial muscles. Unfortunately, the researchers were not able to detect any differences in how the subjects' faces moved when their team scored or when the other team missed a shot; consequently, they concluded that there is no such thing as a "schadenfreude face." Maybe they should have tested toddlers instead...
The face of schadenfreude: Differentiation of joy and schadenfreude by electromyography. "The present study investigated whether the facial expression of the social emotion schadenfreude, the pleasant emotion which arises in response to another's misfortune, can be differentiated from the facial expression of joy. Schadenfreude was ...
