When Eugenie George first heard that her friend passed the accountant exam, her heart sank.
She'd failed that test weeks earlier, and needed the certificate to advance her own career. "My inner child got upset," recalls George. But then, she called her friend. "I told her I failed and admitted I was envious," she says. Being frank shifted her attitude, and she was surprised to realize she could share her friend's happiness and experience her own, in turn. "I congratulated my friend and told her she inspired me," George says.
This is what scientists called freudenfreude, meaning finding pleasure in another person's success, even if it doesn't directly involve us. Freudenfreude is like social glue, says Catherine Chambliss, a professor of psychology at Ursinus College. It makes relationships "close and more enjoyable." A study in 2021 examined freudenfreude's role in daily life and found that it could improve life satisfaction and even help people co-operate during a conflict.
While the benefits of freudenfreude are plentiful, it doesn't always come easily. If you were raised in a family that paired winning with self-worth, Chambliss says, you might misread someone else's victory as your own personal shortcoming. Besides, mental health can also affect your ability to participate in someone else's joy. Negative emotions like anger or dislike may lead to the opposite of freudenfreude.
Luckily, the ability of freudenfreude can be exercised. To help people strengthen joy-sharing
muscles, Chambliss and his colleagues developed a programme called Freudenfreude Enhancement Training practices. They found that depressed students who used the practices for two weeks had an easier time expressing freudenfreude, which enhanced their relationships and improved their moods. Given that, having freudenfreude is beneficial and it is worthwhile to explore ways to encourage the feeling.