Impact of Personality Types on Sadism and Schadenfreude in Adults

Abstract

Objective: The study examined the impact of personality types on sadism and schadenfreude in adults.

Study type, settings & duration: This descriptive study was conducted at Sargodah District from October 2019 to December 2020.  

Methodology: New Five Factors Inventory, short sadistic Impulse Scale and schadenfreude scale were used for data collection from university students (N = 300).

Results: Findings revealed that neuroticism has positive correlation with sadism and schadenfreude while extroversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness have negative correlation with sadism and schadenfreude. Openness to experience as a personality trait was not significantly correlated with sadism and schadenfreude. Additionally, regression analyses revealed that neuroticism and conscientiousness significantly predicted sadism while only agreeableness come out as a significant predictor of schadenfreude.

Conclusion: The findings have important implications in the field of personality and human relations. The findings can be used for understating the nature of different personalities having tendencies of negative emotions of sadism and schadenfreude.