Schadenfreude is defined as the joy individuals feel as a result of the pain felt by opposing group members. In order to experience schadenfreude, it is not enough for the individual who is suffering to be a member of the opposing group, but also the perceived competitiveness level of the opposing group must be high. Although this basic assumption of Schadenfreude's competitiveness is confirmed by self-report-based techniques, there is no study in the literature addressing the subject's neural bases. The aim of this study is to test the competitiveness assumptions of schadenfreude using the electroencephalography-based ERP method. For this purpose, EEG recordings were taken of 40 individuals who expressed themselves as belonging to a political party while watching the outgroup and ingroup party members in pain. Perception of competition levels of outgroup and ingroup members were manipulated during the study. The results show that pain empathy for the suffering individuals changes in relation to the competition level. Particularly related changes have been observed in late ERP components known to be related to consciousness. In this context, our study contributes to the literature as the first confirmation of the assumptions of schadenfreude competitiveness level by neuroscientific methodology.

Schadenfreude的定义是个人由于对立的小组成员所感到的痛苦而感到的喜悦。为了体验幸灾乐祸，遭受痛苦的个人成为对立小组的成员还不够，而且对立小组的感知竞争力水平必须很高。尽管基于自我报告的技术证实了Schadenfreude的竞争力的基本假设，但文献中没有针对该受试者的神经基础的研究。这项研究的目的是使用基于脑电图的ERP方法来检验schadenfreude的竞争力假设。为此，对40名个人进行了EEG录音，他们在观看痛苦的团体和团体成员时表示自己属于一个政党。在研究过程中，对小组成员和小组成员的竞争水平进行了感知。结果表明，受苦个体的痛苦同情会随着竞争水平的变化而变化。在已知与意识有关的最新ERP组件中观察到特别相关的变化。在这种情况下，我们的研究为文献研究做出了贡献，这是通过神经科学方法首次证实了幸德弗雷德竞争力水平的假设。