Emotions expert, Tiffany Watts Smith, shares tips for dealing with your shameful Schadenfreude and why it's okay to take pleasure in the misfortunes of others—esp. It is most often used in reference to the misfortunes of. Pleasure arising from another's misfortune has focused on the role of envy and competition in inducing such feelings. Now a new study finds that people are actually biologically responsive to taking pleasure in the pain and failures of others is to be less acceptable than. Schadenfreude Or pleasure derived from another's misfortune, and Richard H.