schadenfreude, as well as in studies that I will explore in a few sections, witnesses learn of a misfortune that happens to another but this news has no direct bearing on the witness. In Carlsmith’s experiments, the witnesses learn of a misfortune, but the offender’s defection has a direct bearing on the witness in terms of money lost. Thus, although punishment may feel good, the benefit may not make up for the lost income.
Everyone in Carlsmith’s experiments also believed that punishment would cause people to think less about the offender. They were wrong again. Punishers, but not those who simply witnessed punishment, ruminated more about the selfish offenders. Rumination led to more bad feelings. These bad feelings led to more rumination, giving birth to a vicious cycle of feeling bad and ruminating about those who cheated them of some money. Rumination heightened the comparative difference in resources.
Carlsmith’s findings are paradoxical and disturbing. Paradoxically, they suggest that in some situations, our expectations about the feeling of punishing an immoral act are inverted from the feelings we feel following punishment: rather than feeling a happy high, we feel a depressing low, often accompanied by increasing anger. In the context of punishing a free-rider who stiffed the group, everyone expects to feel a tingle of delicious delight, but many end up feeling angry instead. The entire polarity of the emotion has switched, with rumination and anger dominating our thoughts. This is a dangerous state to enter. Faced with the strong belief and desire that revenge should feel good, but lacking any confirmation, we are moved to find new evidence. With anger at the helm, there is only one solution: escalate the level of punishment, and continue to do so until it feels good. This is precisely the pattern I described above for obesity: the wanting system continues to search for liking and reward, but fails, and thus continues. Whether it is an unsatisfied desire for food or revenge, the unfortunate consequence is an escalation to excess. Evil isn’t far behind, fueled by a variety of situations in which we fail to obtain what
we want.
The great leveler
We are often envious of those who have what we desire, whether it is good looks, money, a warm supportive family, or a better tennis stroke. Envy can motivate us to change our looks, find careers that will improve our finances, seek relationships that will provide additional support, and pick up a few extra tennis lessons to win the next match. Unfortunately, envy can quickly turn, as desire and a deep sense of inferiority transform into insatiable cravings to acquire whatever is necessary to gain superiority. Envy thus wears two masks, one benign and inspirational, the other malignant and destructive. As the writer
Dorothy Sayers noted, envy “is the great leveler; if it cannot level things up, it will level them down.”
Hauser Chapter 2. Runaway desire 69
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