The role of cognitions and emotions in the effect of social identity and incivil behavior on schadenfreude

Although uncivil behaviour is a frequently studied topic in the field of organizational psychology, it has not received enough attention in the field of social psychology. This study is important because it introduces incivility to the social psychology literature, examines incivility under the theoretical framework of Social identity theory, explains the mediating mechanisms that play a role in the relationship between incivility and its consequences. Since Schadenfreude is a social emotion sensitive to norm violations, it was determined as the dependent variable of the study. The study aims to examine the main effect of uncivil behaviour and social identity on schadenfreude and the mediating cognitive and emotional mechanisms of this effect. For this purpose, a pilot study and 3 main studies were conducted. In the pilot study, the reliability of the incivility manipulation and schadenfreude measurement scales were tested. The measurement tools were found to be appropriate and the main studies were started. In the first study, social identity conditions were created as (out-group present, out group absent). In the first study, it was found that negative emotions played a mediating role and deservingness played a moderating role in the relationship between incivility and schadenfreude. In the second study, social identity conditions were created as (ingroup, outgroup) and the study was repeated by adding manipulation control. It was found that incivility and social identity had an interaction effect on schadenfreude. This was explained by the fact that those who were exposed to incivility perceived themselves as out-group members, and this explanation was tested in the next study. In the third study, all manipulations and measurement scales remained the same as in the second study, except for the addition of a measure of the extent to which participants perceived themselves to be in the group. Perceived group membership status was found to mediate this relationship. As a result, more schadenfreude was felt when the source of the uncivil behavior was an ingroup member than when it was an out-group member, and this was explained by the fact that individuals categorized themselves as out-group members after the uncivil behaviour from the ingroup member.