Unfair Exclusion Leads to Schadenfreude: The Role of Perceived Deservingness

We manipulated fairness of ostracism in Cyberball game with 479 participants (47% men, M_age = 46). The unfair exclusion condition produced higher schadenfreude toward excluders compared to fair ostracism or inclusion conditions (F(2,476) = 10.04, p < .001, d = 0.45), demonstrating that perceived fairness affects emotional responses toward ostracizers.