@article{MitschkeEder2021,
  author    = {Mitschke, Vanessa and Eder, Andreas B.},
  title     = {Facing the enemy: Spontaneous facial reactions towards suffering opponents},
  series = {Psychophysiology},
  volume    = {58},
  journal   = {Psychophysiology},
  number    = {8},
  doi       = {10.1111/psyp.13835},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-259672},
  year      = {2021},
  abstract  = {The suffering of an opponent is an important social affective cue that modulates how aggressive interactions progress. To investigate the affective consequences of opponent suffering on a revenge seeking individual, two experiments (total N = 82) recorded facial muscle activity while participants observed the reaction of a provoking opponent to a (retaliatory) sound punishment in a laboratory aggression task. Opponents reacted via prerecorded videos either with facial displays of pain, sadness, or neutrality. Results indicate that participants enjoyed seeing the provocateur suffer: indexed by a coordinated muscle response featuring an increase in zygomaticus major (and orbicularis oculi muscle) activation accompanied by a decrease in corrugator supercilii activation. This positive facial reaction was only shown while a provoking opponent expressed pain. Expressions of sadness, and administration of sound blasts to nonprovoking opponents, did not modulate facial activity. Overall, the results suggest that revenge-seeking individuals enjoy observing the offender suffer, which could represent schadenfreude or satisfaction of having succeeded in the retaliation goal.},
  language  = {en}
}