The pleasure we take in others' misfortune and what it says about us

You heard that someone had come unstuck. A rival. A bully. Someone overconfident, or two-faced, or just a bit too pleased with themselves. And something in you was glad. 

You won't say it out loud. You might barely admit it to yourself. 

But the Germans have a word for it. And it turns out, so did the ancient Greeks. 

Schadenfreude. The pleasure we take in others' misfortune. 

Is it a moral failing? A sign of deficient character? Or is it a window into what we actually believe about justice, equality — and each other?

GUESTS:

Tiffany Watt-Smith is a cultural historian and author of Schadenfreude: The Joy of Another's Misfortune. She joins us from London. 

Nick Haslam is Professor of Psychology at the University of Melbourne, and the man who's been thinking hard about Australia's national variant — tall poppy syndrome.