A closer look
Smiling when an arrogant coworker fails a presentation is a primal evolutionary reflex designed to regulate social hierarchy. Schadenfreude, the experience of pleasure derived from another's misfortune, is deeply tied to the brain's reward circuitry. Mina Cikara's fMRI scans on hardcore baseball fans showed that watching a hated rival team strike out creates immense spikes of dopamine, sometimes even more than watching their own team succeed. This slightly sadistic biological mechanism evolved to bond in-groups together by collectively enjoying the downfall of a threatening out-group, proving that human camaraderie is entirely often built on a foundation of shared, petty malice.
