Schadenfreudalicious

For this week's Roundtable, Sereena X at Metaphor, Dummy discusses schadenfreude. Defined as "deriving pleasure from the misfortune of others," recent studies have shown it to be a more distinctly male trait. The studies show that when a person demonstrated to be "good" or "nice" gets hurt, both men and women experience empathy. But if the person getting hurt is deemed "bad" or deserving of that pain, women still feel empathy while men don't. Does this indicate that men are meaner or more ethical?

Lauren indicates that she actually enjoys watching people and animals fall down (as do I), so does that make her more man-ish? And why does everyone just really like saying "schadenfreude" as much as possible? I bet you're doing it right now, aren't you? Just repeating "schadenfreude" over and over again, whispering it under your breath, you kinky perv.

Anyway, order another round and head on over to join the discussion...