Politics of interconfessional empathy and Schadenfreude in Lebanon

Abstract

We analyze the sources of two politically relevant, yet opposing emotions: empathy and Schadenfreude. We propose that group and individual-level political factors affect empathy and Schadenfreude toward other groups. Using a survey experiment conducted in Lebanon we find that, when presented with a prompt about political repression, respondents are less likely to express empathy and more likely to express Schadenfreude when victims of political repression were from the out-group perceived as their group’s most recent antagonist. At the individual level, those more involved in their in-group’s community are generally more likely to feel Schadenfreude and less likely to express empathy.