WEBVTT

00:00:00.251 --> 00:00:02.918
(playful music)

00:00:05.920 --> 00:00:07.980
- [Narrator] Whether it's
laughing at fail videos

00:00:07.980 --> 00:00:09.730
or relishing those times

00:00:09.730 --> 00:00:12.540
when a rival sports
team lost the big game,

00:00:12.540 --> 00:00:15.510
we all enjoy watching others' misfortunes.

00:00:15.510 --> 00:00:17.020
There's actually a word for this,

00:00:17.020 --> 00:00:19.651
it's called schadenfreude,
literally it means

00:00:19.651 --> 00:00:23.520
enjoyment obtained from
troubles of others.

00:00:23.520 --> 00:00:25.950
It sounds twisted, and it is.

00:00:25.950 --> 00:00:28.150
It's even more twisted
than you might think.

00:00:31.020 --> 00:00:33.210
Shadenfreude is nothing new.

00:00:33.210 --> 00:00:35.880
Chances are, it's been hardwired
into our way of thinking

00:00:35.880 --> 00:00:37.640
for millions of years.

00:00:37.640 --> 00:00:40.330
- One of the strongest
arguments, to my mind,

00:00:40.330 --> 00:00:44.450
is that our brains evolved
over millions of years

00:00:44.450 --> 00:00:47.220
in a situation where you
had small groups of humans

00:00:47.220 --> 00:00:48.980
scrabbling out an existence

00:00:48.980 --> 00:00:51.780
against other small groups of humans

00:00:51.780 --> 00:00:53.580
in a relatively harsh environment.

00:00:53.580 --> 00:00:55.090
In order to survive that,

00:00:55.090 --> 00:00:57.952
you'd need your group
to be really tight-knit,

00:00:57.952 --> 00:01:02.380
and this would both select
for something like empathy,

00:01:02.380 --> 00:01:04.710
feeling for the suffering
of other group members,

00:01:04.710 --> 00:01:07.390
and also extreme
aggression towards others,

00:01:07.390 --> 00:01:08.947
something like shadenfreude.

00:01:08.947 --> 00:01:10.420
- [Narrator] Shadenfreude and empathy

00:01:10.420 --> 00:01:12.660
are two sides of the same coin.

00:01:12.660 --> 00:01:14.170
They're both a response we feel

00:01:14.170 --> 00:01:17.240
to seeing someone else's
trials and misfortunes.

00:01:17.240 --> 00:01:20.190
However, there's one big
difference between the two.

00:01:20.190 --> 00:01:23.620
Shadenfreude isn't something
parents teach their children,

00:01:23.620 --> 00:01:26.980
yet researchers know that
babies as young as two

00:01:26.980 --> 00:01:28.780
can experience it.

00:01:28.780 --> 00:01:30.660
All it takes is a little competition

00:01:30.660 --> 00:01:32.270
to trigger the reaction.

00:01:32.270 --> 00:01:33.940
For one study, two-year olds watched

00:01:33.940 --> 00:01:36.640
as their mothers doted on other infants.

00:01:36.640 --> 00:01:39.770
Later, the mothers were told
to spill water on the infants.

00:01:39.770 --> 00:01:42.470
When they did, the onlooking
two-year olds got so excited

00:01:42.470 --> 00:01:45.180
that some of them
literally bounced with joy.

00:01:45.180 --> 00:01:47.500
It's funny, but it's not hard to see

00:01:47.500 --> 00:01:49.840
how this childish rivalry
could develop into

00:01:49.840 --> 00:01:52.400
something more sinister in adults.

00:01:52.400 --> 00:01:55.310
And that's exactly what
Emile Bruneau studies.

00:01:55.310 --> 00:01:57.080
He's traveled to many parts of the world

00:01:57.080 --> 00:01:58.420
to investigate conflicts,

00:01:58.420 --> 00:02:01.910
including Americans and
Mexicans on the Arizona border,

00:02:01.910 --> 00:02:04.370
Israelis and Palestinians in Israel,

00:02:04.370 --> 00:02:07.110
and Democrats and Republicans in the U.S.

00:02:07.110 --> 00:02:10.480
It doesn't matter where the
conflict is or what it's about,

00:02:10.480 --> 00:02:14.070
he's found that the root of
all of it is shadenfreude.

00:02:14.070 --> 00:02:16.800
- We are extraordinarily motivated by

00:02:16.800 --> 00:02:19.920
who belongs to our group and
who belongs to the other group.

00:02:19.920 --> 00:02:21.380
We have a strong tendency to think,

00:02:21.380 --> 00:02:23.010
not just in terms of me and you,

00:02:23.010 --> 00:02:24.500
but in terms of us and them.

00:02:24.500 --> 00:02:26.470
And people who identify as them,

00:02:26.470 --> 00:02:29.760
I'll feel more shadenfreude
towards them than towards us.

00:02:29.760 --> 00:02:30.593
And certainly,

00:02:30.593 --> 00:02:32.760
that is the type of thing
that drives behavior.

00:02:32.760 --> 00:02:34.610
If you feel empathy for somebody else,

00:02:34.610 --> 00:02:36.850
you're motivated to help
them if they're in distress.

00:02:36.850 --> 00:02:38.590
Similarly, if you feel shadenfreude,

00:02:38.590 --> 00:02:41.280
you're motivated to harm the other person.

00:02:41.280 --> 00:02:43.460
- [Narrator] Neuroscientists
think they've pinpointed

00:02:43.460 --> 00:02:45.730
the area of the brain behind all this.

00:02:45.730 --> 00:02:46.563
For one study,

00:02:46.563 --> 00:02:49.830
Red Sox and Yankees fans
watched simulated plays

00:02:49.830 --> 00:02:53.070
while a fMRI measured
their brain activity.

00:02:53.070 --> 00:02:55.740
When a fan saw the rival team fail,

00:02:55.740 --> 00:02:57.270
a special area of the brain

00:02:57.270 --> 00:03:00.020
called the ventral striatum lit up.

00:03:00.020 --> 00:03:02.140
It helps process reward and pleasure,

00:03:02.140 --> 00:03:05.450
suggesting that the fans were
experiencing shadenfreude.

00:03:05.450 --> 00:03:09.110
The ventral striatum is also
involved with decision making.

00:03:09.110 --> 00:03:11.970
Interestingly, fans who
showed more activity there

00:03:11.970 --> 00:03:14.200
also reported that they
were likely to harm

00:03:14.200 --> 00:03:16.220
a fan of the rival team.

00:03:16.220 --> 00:03:18.540
This could explain why
shadenfreude seems to be

00:03:18.540 --> 00:03:21.640
driving human conflicts
and violence worldwide.

00:03:21.640 --> 00:03:23.770
But isn't it time we finally shake off

00:03:23.770 --> 00:03:25.650
this archaic way of thinking?

00:03:25.650 --> 00:03:27.210
- The modern world is very different

00:03:27.210 --> 00:03:30.550
than the world that our
brains primarily evolved in.

00:03:30.550 --> 00:03:32.131
And right now, we're trying to solve

00:03:32.131 --> 00:03:35.580
these modern day problems
with Stone Age psychology.

00:03:35.580 --> 00:03:39.500
In an environment that is
global and multicultural,

00:03:39.500 --> 00:03:41.150
where you have much less conflict,

00:03:41.150 --> 00:03:43.870
where cooperation and collaboration

00:03:43.870 --> 00:03:45.570
can get you much further than conflict,

00:03:45.570 --> 00:03:49.880
then yes, I feel like
it is not as productive.

00:03:49.880 --> 00:03:52.010
- [Narrator] Instead, Bruno is exploring

00:03:52.010 --> 00:03:54.330
how to use empathy to resolve conflict

00:03:54.330 --> 00:03:56.460
and move towards resolutions.

00:03:56.460 --> 00:03:59.270
- Most recently, what I've
been really interested in is,

00:03:59.270 --> 00:04:00.520
how do we intervene?

00:04:00.520 --> 00:04:04.650
And how do we motivate empathy
towards the other group?

00:04:04.650 --> 00:04:06.740
Interestingly enough,
what I've found is that

00:04:06.740 --> 00:04:09.770
interventions that are directed more at

00:04:09.770 --> 00:04:13.680
trying to challenge their
cognitive perceptions

00:04:13.680 --> 00:04:14.513
of the other side

00:04:14.513 --> 00:04:17.090
are the types of things
that open up their empathy.

00:04:17.090 --> 00:04:19.930
So it's almost like the best approach

00:04:19.930 --> 00:04:23.060
to opening people's hearts is
first by opening their minds.

00:04:23.060 --> 00:04:24.630
- [Narrator] This doesn't
necessarily mean that

00:04:24.630 --> 00:04:27.290
you can't laugh at fail videos on Youtube.

00:04:27.290 --> 00:04:28.990
But perhaps if we tried to have

00:04:28.990 --> 00:04:31.570
a little bit more
empathy for other groups,

00:04:31.570 --> 00:04:34.152
maybe we could make the
world a better place.

00:04:34.152 --> 00:04:37.069
(soft piano music)

NOTE end of file