Schadenfreude After Watching the News: How Audiences Respond to Media Coverage of Partisans Disclosing Illnesses

Jessica Gall Myrick; Jin Chen

doi:10.1177/10776990211008534

Schadenfreude After Watching the News: How Audiences Respond to Media Coverage of Partisans Disclosing Illnesses

Jessica Gall Myrick, Jin Chen

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

11 Scopus citations

Abstract

When public figures make announcements about their illness, audiences may be influenced to change their own health behaviors. However, if a disliked political figure becomes ill, feelings of schadenfreude, or pleasure at another’s misfortune, may arise and schadenfreude could predict news consumer’s information seeking and health-related intentions. Surveys of audience responses to news of conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh’s lung cancer diagnosis (N = 414) and to news of Republican Senator Rand Paul’s COVID-19 diagnosis (N = 407) found that such illness announcements can evoke schadenfreude, with schadenfreude associated with decreased willingness to undertake preventative health behaviors.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	135-155
Number of pages	21
Journal	Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly
Volume	99
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1177/10776990211008534
State	Published - Mar 2022

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

Communication

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abstract = "When public figures make announcements about their illness, audiences may be influenced to change their own health behaviors. However, if a disliked political figure becomes ill, feelings of schadenfreude, or pleasure at another{\textquoteright}s misfortune, may arise and schadenfreude could predict news consumer{\textquoteright}s information seeking and health-related intentions. Surveys of audience responses to news of conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh{\textquoteright}s lung cancer diagnosis (N = 414) and to news of Republican Senator Rand Paul{\textquoteright}s COVID-19 diagnosis (N = 407) found that such illness announcements can evoke schadenfreude, with schadenfreude associated with decreased willingness to undertake preventative health behaviors.",

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Schadenfreude After Watching the News: How Audiences Respond to Media Coverage of Partisans Disclosing Illnesses

Abstract

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