The Joy of Pain

by Richard H. Smith

  6. Quoted in Baumol, W. J., & Blinder, A. S. (2010), Economics: Principles and policy, Mason, OH: Cengage Learning.

  7. Summers, A., & Swan, R. (2006), Sinatra: The life, New York: Vintage Books, p. 81.

  8. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QvSoRQrVJg, retrieved June 15, 2010.

  9. Rousseau, J. (1984), A discourse on inequality, New York: Viking Penguin (orginally published in 1754; trans. Maurice Cranston).

  10. Ibid., p. 114.

  11. Much of this analysis was taken from Smith (2000).

  12. Festinger (1954).

  13. Fiske (2011).

  14. Morse, S., & Gergen, K. J. (1970), Social comparison, self-consistency, and the concept of the self, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 16, 148–156.

  15. Baumeister, R. F., & Bushman, B. (2008), Social psychology and human nature (1st ed.), Belmont, CA: Wadsworth; Kernis, M. H. (Ed.) (2006), Self-esteem issues and answers: A sourcebook of current perspectives, New York: Psychology Press; Tesser, A. (1988), Toward a self-evaluation maintenance model of social behavior, in L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology, vol. 21 (pp. 181–227), New York: Academic Press.

  16. van Dijk, W., van Koningsbruggen, G. M., Ouwerkerk, J. W., & Wesseling, Y. M. (2011), Self-esteem, self-affirmation, and schadenfreude, Emotion, 11, 1445–1449.

  17. van Dijk, W., Ouwerkerk, J. W., Wesseling, Y. M., & Koningsbruggen, G. M. (2011), Toward understanding pleasure at the misfortunes of others: The impact of self-evaluation threat on schadenfreude, Cognition and Emotion, 25, 360–368.

  18. See http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/François_de_La_Rochefoucauld, retrieved May 3, 2012.

  19. Buss, D. (2012), Evolutionary psychology: The new science of the mind (4th ed.), New York: Allyn & Bacon. Also see a similar analysis in Smith (2000) and in Smith, R. H., & Kim, S. H. (2007), Comprehending envy, Psychological Bulletin, 33(1), 46–64.

  20. Evolutionary perspectives also highlight that altruistic tendencies, especially toward kin, should be adaptive. It’s not that the individual survives, but that his or her offspring survives. Offspring carry the individual’s genetic material, and so tendencies that enhance the survival of kin should provide an evolutionary advantage.

  21. Described in Fletcher, G. J. O. (2002), The new science of intimate relationships, Cambridge: Blackwell Publishers.

  22. Frank (1999), pp. 135–136.

  23. See Smith (2000) and Smith & Kim (2007).

  24. de Botton (2004); Fiske (2011); Marmot (2004).

  25. Buss (2012).

  26. Brosnan, S. F., & de Waal, F. B. M. (2003), Monkeys reject unequal pay, Nature, 425, 297–299.

  27. See http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21773403/ns/technology_and_science-science/, retrieved November 28, 2009.

  28. Boswell, J. (1904), Life of Johnson, Oxford: Oxford University Press (originally published in 1781).

  29. Range, F., Horn, L., Viranyi, Z., & Hube, L. (2008), The absence of reward induces inequity aversion in dogs, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, doi: 10.1073/pnas.0810957105, retrieved April 10, 2010.

  30. Lindhom, C. (2008), Culture and envy, in R. H. Smith (Ed.), Envy: Theory and research (pp. 227–244), New York: Oxford University Press.

  31. Alicke, M. D., & Govorun, O. (2005), The better-than-average effect, in M. D. Alicke, D. A. Dunning, & J. I. Krueger (Eds.), The self in social judgment (pp. 85–106), New York: Psychology Press. This effect is also referred to as the “Lake Wobegon effect” in reference to the imaginary community in Garrison Keiller’s NPR show, The Prairie Home Companion, “where all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average.” See http://prairiehome.publicradio.org/, retrieved May 5, 2012.

  32. See http://www.digitaldreamdoor.com/pages/quotes/george_carlin.html, retrieved September 1, 2012.

  33. Dunning, D. (2005), Self-insight: Roadblocks and detours on the path to knowing thyself, New York: Psychology Press; Taylor, S. E., & Brown, J. (1988), Illusion and well-being: A social psychological perspective on mental health, Psychological Bulletin, 103, 193–210.

  34. Baumeister, R. F. (1989), The optimal margin of illusion, Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 8, 176–189.

  35. I take many of the examples here about Crane’s novel from a more extensive treatment in Smith (2000).

  36. Crane, S. (1952/1895), The red badge of courage, New York: Signet, p. 21.

  37. Ibid., p. 47.

  38. Ibid., p. 92.

  39. Ibid., p. 68.

  40. Ibid.

  41. Although The Red Badge of Courage is fictional, it has the feel of an absorbing documentary. Crane was in his early twenties when he wrote it and had no experience in battle, but he was able to imagine the feelings a soldier might have and why. Indeed, this may have been one of his main goals in writing the book. During the period when he wrote it, he spent many hours in the New York studio of a painter friend, Corwin Linson, who saw him sift through many accounts of Civil War battles. See Linson, C. K. (1958), My Stephen Crane, Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press.

  42. McCall, N. (1995), Makes me wanna holler: A young black man in America, New York: Vintage.

  43. Ibid., p. 12.

  44. Ibid., p. 13.

  45. Ibid., p. 14.

  46. Ibid., p. 17.

  47. Ibid., p. 215.

  48. Ibid., p. 263.

  49. Ibid., p. 300.

  50. Ibid., p. 351.

  51. Ibid.

  Chapter 2

  1. Jones, G. (1996), I lived to tell it all, New York: Bantam Doubleday, p. 5.

  2. Quoted in Sandage, S. A. (2005), Born losers: A history of failure in America, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, pp. 277–278.

  3. See http://www.condenaststore.com/-sp/A-businessman-on-a-plane-thinks-it-s-not-enough-that-I-fly-first-class-New-Yorker-Cartoon-Prints_i8545335_.htm Leo Cullum, retrieved March 30, 2013.

  4. See http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/g/george_carlin_2.html# CjVhwQkdRa8G3eEB.99, retrieved April 22, 2012.

  5. See http://proof.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/15/drunkenfreude/, retrieved December 5, 2009.

  6. Cheever also couched her “drunkenfreude” in the context of what she was able to learn from their behavior. She met many partygoers whose fine behavior left them unmemorable. It was the inebriated whose outrageous behavior was most instructive. She learned more about what not to do by watching those who embarrass themselves than she learned to do by watching the well-behaved and sober.

  7. See http://proof.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/15/drunkenfreude/, retrieved December 5, 2009.

  8. For an interesting empirical analogue, see Pyszczynski, T., Greenberg, J., & LaPrelle, J. (1985), Social comparison after success and failure: Biased search for information consistent with a self-serving conclusion, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 21, 195–211; Wills, T. A. (1981), Downward comparison principles in social psychology, Psychological Bulletin, 90, 245–271.

  9. See http://kenlevine.blogspot.com/2007_12_01_archive.html, retrieved March 21, 2011.

  10. See http://www.nj.com/entertainment/celebrities/index.ssf/2007/08/beauty_queens_map_quest.html, and http://www.theage.com.au/news/people/beauty-queen-left-searching-for-answers/2007/08/29/1188067160206.html, retrieved March 21, 2011.

  11. See http://www.zimbio.com/Lauren+Caitlin+Upton/articles/IifvXCVcaBc/Caitlin+Upton+Miss+Teen+South+Carolina+Learns, retrieved March 21, 2011.

  12. See http://www.nickburcher.com/2007/12/2007s-most-watched-best-youtubeclips.html, retrieved March 21, 2011.

  13. See http://www.stupidityawards.com/Stupidest_Statement_of_the_Year.html, retrieved March 21, 2011.

  14. See http://www.urbanmoms.ca/juice/2007/12/top-ten-quotes-of-2007.html, retrieved March 21, 2011; http://poplicks.com/2007/12/best-quotes-of-2007.html, retrieved March 21, 2011; and http://deathby1000papercuts.com/2007/12/the-27-most-outrageous-quotes-of-2007/, retrieved March 21, 2011.

  15. http://www.boston.com/news/nation/gallery/
121907_top10quotes?pg=3, and http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN1959512020071219?loc=interstitialskip retrieved March 21, 2011.

  16. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj3iNxZ8Dww, retrieved March 21, 2011.

  17. See http://www.cincihomeless.org/content/downloads/Bumfights.pdf., retrieved December 5, 2009.

  18. See http://vyuz.com/022706_Bumfights.htm, retrieved December 5, 2009.

  19. Wills (1981).

  20. Wert, S. R., & Salovey, P. (2004), A social comparison account of gossip, Review of General Psychology, 8, 122–137.

  21. Wills (1981), p. 246.

  22. Ibid.

  23. Diener, E., Fraser, S. C., Beaman, A. L., & Kelem, R. T. (1976), Effects of deindividuation variables on stealing among Halloween trick-or-treaters, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 33, 178–183; Festinger, L., Pepitone, A., & Newcomb T. (1952), Some consequences of deindividuation in a group, Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 47, 382–389; Postmes, T., & Spears, R. (1998), Deindividuation and anti-normative behavior: A meta-analysis, Psychological Bulletin, 123, 238–259; Zimbardo, P. G. (2007), The Lucifer effect: Understanding how good people turn evil, New York: Random House.

  24. Wills (1981), p. 246.

  25. Hobbes, T. (1968), Leviathan, Harmondsworth: Penguin, p. 35 (originally published in 1651).

  26. Ibid.

  27. Wills (1981), p. 260.

  28. Ibid.

  29. See http://www.guy-sports.com/humor/comedians/comedian_groucho_marx.htm, retrieved May 17, 2012.

  30. See http://www.corsinet.com/braincandy/ins-fmen.html, retrieved May 17, 2012.

  31. See http://www.thewrap.com/tv/column-post/jon-stewart-accept-it-gop-mittromneys-your-man-video-32710, retrieved November 13, 2011; another safe target is the self: there is no way to insult the audience if the focus is on the joketeller himself.

  32. Gruner, C. R. (1997), The game of humor: A comprehensive theory of why we laugh, New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, p. 8; see also Ferguson, M. A., & Ford, T. E. (2008), Disparagement humor: A theoretical and empirical review of psychoanalytic, superiority, and social identity theories, Humor: Interrnational Journal of Humor Research, 21, 283–312; La Fave, L., Haddad, J., Maesen, W. A. (1996/1976), Superiority, enhanced self-esteem, and perceived incongruity humor theory, in A. J. Chapman & H. C. Foot (Eds.), Humor and laughter: Theory, research and applications (pp. 63–91), New York: John Wiley & Sons; Zillman, D., & Cantor, J. R. (1976), A disposition theory of humor and mirth, in A. J. Chapman & H. C. Foot (Eds.), Humor and laughter: Theory, research and applications (pp. 93–116), London: Wiley.

  33. As with Hobbes, Gruner also emphasizes that the laughter component of humor is related to suddenness of the victory.

  34. For a recent evolutionary analysis, see Martens, J. P., Tracy, J. L., & Shariff, A. F. (2012), Status signals: Adaptive benefit of displaying and observing the nonverbal expressions of pride and shame, Cognition and Emotion, 26, 390–406.

  35. See http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/m/melbrooks161275.html#J3q3MoD2rU1HwY8u.99, retrieved April 22, 2012.

  36. For a review, see Ferguson, & Ford (2008).

  37. Martin, R. A. (2007), The psychology of humor: An integrative approach, London: Elsevier.

  38. Wills (1981), p. 260.

  39. See http://www.harrypotterspage.com/category/j-k-rowling/, retrieved January 5, 2012. As Lev Goldman noted in a tribute to Wodehouse in Time magazine: “His subject was the foibles of the pre-war English aristocracy, which sounds limiting, but it was his subject the same way marble was Michelangelo’s subject. He could do anything with it.” See http://entertainment.time.com/2011/11/23/in-praise-of-p-g-wodehouse/, retrieved January 5, 2012.

  40. See http://www.booktv.org/Watch/8532/In+Depth+Christopher+Hitchens.aspx, retrieved January 5, 2012.

  41. He designs ladies’ underwear.

  42. Wodehouse, P. G. (1938), The code of the Woosters, New York: Vintage Books, p. 166.

  43. Ibid.

  44. Ibid., p. 182.

  45. Ibid., pp. 220–221.

  Chapter 3

  1. Orwell, G. (1950), Shooting an elephant and other essays, New York: Penguin.

  2. See http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/370054.George_S_Patton_Jr., retrieved May 26, 2012.

  3. See http://www.condenaststore.com/-sp/It-s-not-enough-that-we-succeed-Cats-must-also-fail-New-Yorker-Cartoon-Prints_i8542217_.htm, retrieved February, 2012.

  4. See http://thinkexist.com/quotes/billy_crystal/, retrieved April 22, 2012.

  5. Von Neumann, J., & Morgensten, O. (1944), Theory of games and economic behavior, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

  6. See http://boston.com/community/moms/blogs/parent_buzz/2012/07/aly_raismans_parents_are_animated_in_the_stands_does_it_make_you_nervous_to_watch_your_child_compete.html; and http://www.boston.com/sports/other_sports/olympics/articles/2012/08/02/parents_of_olympians_arent_the_only_ones_who_feel_stress_when_their_children_perform/; http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/gymnastics/chevy-top-moment-1-aly-raisman-s-mom-s-reaction.html, retrieved August 4, 2012.

  7. Tajfel, H. (Ed.) (1978), Differentiation between social groups: Studies in the social psychology of intergroup relations, London: Academic Press.

  8. Tajfel, H. (1970), Experiments in intergroup discrimination, Scientific American, 223, 96–102.

  9. Tajfel, H., & Turner, J. C. (1979), An integrative theory of intergroup conflict, in W. G. Austin & S. Worchel (Eds.), The social psychology of intergroup relations (pp. 94–109), Monterey, CA: Brooks-Cole; Tajfel, H., & Turner, J. C. (1986), The social identity theory of inter-group behavior, in S. Worchel & L. W. Austin (Eds.), Psychology of intergroup relations (pp. 2–24), Chicago: Nelson-Hall.

  10. St. John, W. (2004), Rammer jammer yellow hammer: A journey in the heart of fan mania, New York: Crown.

  11. Ibid., p. 125.

  12. Ibid., pp. 98–99.

  13. See http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/1245389/, retrieved June 21, 2010; and Taylor, S., & Johnson, K. C. (2008), Until proven innocent: Political correctness and the shameful injustices of the Duke lacrosse rape case, New York: St. Martin’s Griffin.

  14. Leach, C. W., Spears, R., Branscombe, N. R., & Doosje, B. (2003), Malicious pleasure: Schadenfreude at the suffering of another group, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84, 932–943.

  15. Empirical evidence for the nature of ingroup loyalty and outgroup distaste (and the potential for biased perceptions) goes as far back as the classic study examining Dartmouth and Princeton students’ biased perceptions of film footage of a rough football game between the two schools. Hastorf, A. H., & Cantril, H. (1954), They saw a game: A case study, Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 49, 129–134. A qualitative analysis of another football game from two perspectives is a documentary, Havard Beats Yale, 29–29, http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2009/01/23/when-harvard-beat-yale.html, retrieved April 19, 2013.

  16. St. John (2004), p. 93.

  17. Ibid., p. 94.

  18. See http://www.fannation.com/si_blogs/for_the_record/posts/3541, retrieved August 10, 2010.

  19. See http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=ohlmeyer_don&id=4764245, retrieved May 26, 2012.

  20. Wann D. L., Peterson R. R., Cothran C., & Dykes, M. (1999), Sport fan aggression and anonymity: The importance of team identification, Social Behavior and Personality, 27, 597–602; Wann, D. L., Haynes, G., McLean, B., & Pullen, P. (2003), Sport team identification and willingness to consider anonymous acts of hostile aggression, Aggressive Behavior, 29, 406–413.

  21. Hoogland, C., Schurtz, R. D., Combs, D. J. Y., Cooper, C., Brown, E. G., & Smith, R. H. (2013), How does the severity of the misfortune affect schadenfreude in sports? Unpublished manuscript.

  22. Cikara, M., Botvinick, M., & Fiske, S. T. (2010), Us versus them: Social identity shapes neural responses to intergroup competition and harm, Psychological Science, 22, 306–313.

  23. Wildschut, T., Pinter, B., Vevea, J. L., Insko, C. A., & Sc
hopler, J. (2003), Beyond the group mind: A quantitative review of the interindividual intergroup discontinuity effect, Psychological Bulletin, 129, 698–722.

  24. See http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/sports/James-Hahn-Gangnam-Style-Golf-Dance-Putt-PGA–189662021.html, retrieved March 8, 2013.

  25. See http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/letter_from_america/464752.stm, retrieved May 15, 2012.

  26. See http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/golf/3913453.stm, retrieved May 15, 2012; http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1017184/index.htm, retrieved May 15, 2012; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxTbNTyWIvc, retrieved May 15, 2012; and http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/letter_from_america/464752.stm, retrieved May 15, 2012.