Why We Secretly Love Watching Others Trip Up — And What Your Zodiac Sign Says About Your Schadenfreude Style
Added on September 1, 2025 inASTROLOGY CARDS
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Ever catch yourself grinning just a tad too much when a reality TV star trips on her own ego or a politician’s scandal hits the headlines? Welcome to the quirky world of schadenfreude—yes, that glorious German word that’s basically “harm” plus “joy” rolled into one deliciously guilty human emotion. Now, with Mercury waltzing through Libra today, stirring up a cosmic cocktail of judgment and balance, it felt like the perfect cosmic nudge to unravel why we secretly savor others’ missteps like they’re the latest binge-worthy drama. Is this just a harmless human quirk, or have we all become “hungry ghosts,” endlessly feasting on the misfortunes served up by our news feeds? Spoiler alert—it turns out this feeling isn’t the dark American underbelly we thought it was. So, shall we dive into this weirdly universal cocktail of delight and disgrace and figure out how to flip the channel? LEARN MORE.
If you’re not familiar, Schadenfreude (German Schaden, harm + Freude, joy) is the experience of pleasure, joy, or self-satisfaction that comes from learning of or witnessing the troubles, failures, or humiliation of another. I decided to try to understand this better. I’m glad I did because I found out, I didn’t understand it at all.
I had previously associated, schadenfreude, with the few people I know who thrive on bad news. These individuals have a compulsive quality in this area. They’re like “hungry ghosts”. They will literally call you and ask if another person’s bad news is available. They’re sick in this way. It reads as an disorder. As it turn out, schadenfreude, is a lot more common than I thought. I discovered this fact in increments.
Schadenfreude is a universal, deep human emotion that is not inherently pathological. In other words, I do exactly what the people I’ve mentioned do; just in a different way, to a different degree and for a different reason(s)… perhaps? It occurred to me to deny this was an American thing. Would a German see this differently?
The answer to that seems to be, yes. From what I could glean, Germans view schadenfreude a word for a for a thing that it exists, with no psychological or moralistic grime laid on top. It’s not seen as an, American “guilty pleasure”. It just is a human feeling that exists.
My Mercury in Libra sided with the Germans here, which ended my denial of these feelings. You raped someone, you went to prison, GOOD! But I was still thinking about this when I had a significant realization around how people are addicted to the news.
What is the news these days?
Ooh! Her head was cut off.
Ooh, someone stole her baby.
Ooh. the news says someone had an affair! On a camera!
Also someone said a bad word and their sky fell…
Does that not sound like pure uncut fuel for Schadenfreude? It’s an endless parade of people to feel superior to, to condemn, to pity, and to fear. The whole world has been transformed into a source of cheap, disposable drama for our consumption. I’m thinking if you realize how you’re being tapped, you may be able to pull the plug on this.
What do you think? What’s your experience with schadenfreude?
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