> It gets worse. These high-empathy students were also more likely to be amused by reports that students protesting the speech had injured a bystander sympathetic to the speaker. That’s right: According to this study, people prone to empathy are prone to schadenfreude.
I can relate, as I am certainly someone who would probably laugh in this situation, as I also find myself laughing at the idea that people trample one another during Black Friday.
If someone were to physically injure someone during a controversial debate, I find it amusing in the sense that I am thinking "Hah... That's the way to get people to listen to your viewpoint", sarcastically.
It's not that I'm laughing at the injury. I'm laughing at the absurd immaturity of it all. Laughter is frequently used as a coping mechanism for dealing with unpleasant realities. Personally, it doesn't diminish the tragedy of what happens. It allows me to process it with a sort of mental "buffer".
Probably highly empathetic folks would be hard to find in todays information overloaded world with so many bad news.
Eg I have a relative who very much cannot look at the news because it's all bad. And actively seeks out positive things. (Like meditation, Om chanting, they try to bring positivity to the world, basically the new age thoughts and prayers.)
> Personally, it doesn't diminish the tragedy of what happens
What's more tragic, an unpleasant reality you don't laugh at or an unpleasant reality where you laugh at as a coping mechanism. I would assume the unpleasant reality where you cannot even laugh at it. So I imagine some diminish of the tragedy does exist.
I can relate, as I am certainly someone who would probably laugh in this situation, as I also find myself laughing at the idea that people trample one another during Black Friday.
If someone were to physically injure someone during a controversial debate, I find it amusing in the sense that I am thinking "Hah... That's the way to get people to listen to your viewpoint", sarcastically.
It's not that I'm laughing at the injury. I'm laughing at the absurd immaturity of it all. Laughter is frequently used as a coping mechanism for dealing with unpleasant realities. Personally, it doesn't diminish the tragedy of what happens. It allows me to process it with a sort of mental "buffer".