2013 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

The role of resentment and schadenfreude in participation of bullying as a sanction among elementary and junior high school students.

Research Project

Project/Area Number	23730604
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
Allocation Type	Multi-year Fund
Research Field	Educational psychology
Research Institution	Utsunomiya University
Principal Investigator	SAWADA Masato 宇都宮大学, 教育学部, 准教授 (40383450)
Project Period (FY)	2011 – 2013
Keywords	いじめ / 恨み感情 / シャーデンフロイデ / 妬み / 加担経験 / 復讐心 / 制裁
Research Abstract	This study aimed to examine the role of negative emotions in participation of bullying to gain useful insight into prevention of bullying. The negative emotions included "resentment", the continuous anger against others; "envy", feeling of resentful longing; and "schadenfreude", pleasure derived by another person's misfortune. The study for elementary and junior high school students was conducted to measure their experiences of reinforcing the bullying without using the word "bullying" to gather data with high reliability and validity. By using hypothetical scenario, it was found that when children were asked to join in bullying as sanction and if they had a feeling of resentment towards a victim prior to bullying, they tended to become supporters of the perpetrators. However, if they had a feeling of envy towards a victim, they tended to become passive observers.