The Tango of Two Dark Emotions : Mixed Reactions to Commercial Entities (Mis)Fortunes

There are two pervasive affective related states that are not receiving much attention in consumer behavior: Schadenfreude -- pleasure at another’s misfortunes, and Gluckschmerz -- pain at another’s good fortune. Following recent discussion about the conceptual ambiguities of the two states some scholars, from divergent traditions, speculated that both are atypical states of dubious moral sentiments that might precipitate mixed feelings . Therefore, the major aim of this research was to advance a novel emotional co-activation approach that underlines complex network of emotional commercial episodes of schadenfreude and gluckschmerz. Three studies reveal that perceived rivals’ pleasurable losses and disappointing wins might generate each, simultaneous positive and negative affect in the form of mixed attitudes and feelings. Analyses provided evidence for main effects of personality and situation features, as well as a smaller but consistent evidence for person-situation interaction effects. Overall, results advance our proposed theory of ambivalent schadenfreude and gluckschmerz