Can Animals Truly Experience Schadenfreude?
In 2023, an African gray parrot named Jack went viral for mimicking the coughs and wheezes of her owner’s father, who often struggled to breathe from severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
But it wasn’t just the imitation that made Jack famous; it was also that she seemed to relish the suffering of a man she purportedly hated. In the video, Jack’s owner even claimed that she had a favorite cough.
The parrot appeared to be experiencing a complex emotion that in humans is known as schadenfreude, or pleasure at seeing another’s pain. Literally translated from German as “harm joy,” it’s a feeling that might emerge when a rival coworker gets fired, or when a rude neighbor has their package stolen.
When a cat seems a little too happy watching a human stub their toe, or a horse seems to grin at a person stepping in poop, their owners might also interpret their behavior as schadenfreude.
But can any animals really experience such a complicated emotion? Or is this a classic case of anthropomorphization?
A complex emotion
“The study of complex emotions is incredibly difficult when you’re talking about an animal that cannot communicate their emotions linguistically,” says Zachary Silver, an assistant professor of psychology leading the canine intelligence lab at Occidental College in Los Angeles. “We don’t have the ability to be as precise as we like in the scientific community.” silver explained that researchers can look at behavior, neurological signals or hormonal activity to make an educated guess about what an animal might be feeling. A dog that has its ears back and tail tucked is likely experiencing a negative emotion, while one wagging its tail feels positive. But “aside from positive and negative, without words to describe the emotion, it becomes very difficult to disentangle,” Silver added. The dog could be happy, but it could also just be interested in something new. “It’s just so hard for us to say with any definitive nature that we really can know exactly what emotion is going on there,” Silver concluded.
Animal behavior researchers strive to avoid anthropomorphizing animals—attributing human qualities to them without evidence. For example, when a cat or dog comforts a grieving human, the behavior might simply be reinforced by rewarding the animal with treats or pets rather than a genuine outpouring of sympathy. Similarly, Jack the parrot could have been mimicking coughs solely for attention.
Further insights come from David Stahlman, an animal behavior researcher at the University of Mary Washington, who agrees that such emotional capacity in animals is unlikely. He observes that animals do not seem to have the ability to recognize their own emotional states, though not all animal behavior researchers agree. “There’s a difference between affect, emotional behavior, and the recognition of that behavior in oneself,” Stahlman explains. If nonhuman animals were to possess this capability, it would likely be found in highly social great apes—such as chimpanzees and bonobos. Schadenfreude, specifically, would require animals to live in close social groups where they understand the emotional state of others. In hierarchical groups, perhaps the suffering of one animal benefits another, potentially resembling happiness, but Stahlman doubts this would qualify as true schadenfreude. “The kind of Machiavellian stuff is a very human thing,” he stated.
Nevertheless, Kaeli Swift, an animal behavior researcher at the University of Water and author of the Corvid Research blog, points out that “there is a lot of data pointing in the direction that animals do have really deep capacities for emotional intelligence.” Studies of some corvid species have found evidence of emotional recognition, fairness, and “some of the strongest evidence across the animal world” for theory of mind. However, when it comes to examining emotions as complex and subjective as schadenfreude, researchers state they “haven’t quite crossed that threshold.” In fact, “we have barely started to scratch the surface” in this area.
When cats make trouble for their owners, they may not be experiencing schadenfreude but rather just want attention.
(Image credit: Zhenny-zhenny via Shutterstock)
A true complex emotion like schadenfreude requires an animal to understand the emotional states of both itself and others—a concept known as theory of mind.
“Dogs may have some ability to attribute mental states like emotions, thoughts, beliefs, intentions to other individuals, but this really only occurs in very select contexts and in a rudimentary way,” Silver added. Because of this, “it’s exceedingly unlikely that dogs would be able to experience schadenfreude in the way that we as humans do.” David Stahlman, an animal behavior researcher at the University of Mary Washington, concurs that such emotional capacity in animals is unlikely. He notes that animals do not seem to have the ability to recognize their own emotional states, though not all animal behavior researchers agree. “There’s a difference between affect, emotional behavior, and the recognition of that behavior in oneself,” Steelman said. If nonhuman animals were to possess this capability, it would probably be found in highly social great apes, such as chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and bonobos (Pan paniscus). Schadenfreude, in particular, would require animals to live in close social groups, since it requires knowledge of the individual experiencing the harm and whether it deserves it.
In hierarchical groups, the suffering of one animal might benefit another and lead to something resembling happiness, Stahlman suggested, but he doubted this would ever qualify as genuine schadenfreude. “The kind of Machiavellian stuff is a very human thing,” he stated.
Nevertheless, “there is a lot of data pointing in the direction that animals do have really deep capacities for emotional intelligence,” said Kaeli Swift, an animal behavior researcher at the University of Washington and author of the Corvid Research blog.
She noted that studies of some corvid species have found evidence of emotional recognition, fairness, and “some of the strongest evidence across the animal world” for theory of mind. However, when it comes to studying an emotion as complex and subjective as schadenfreude, researchers “haven’t quite crossed that threshold.” In the study of animal emotions, she said “we have barely started to scratch the surface.”
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Life’s Little Mysteries