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paper-machine comments on Why do people ____? - Less Wrong Discussion
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A common answer might be: For the lulz. That is, they're addicted to something similar to schadenfreude, and so they cause the conditions that lead to someone else experiencing misfortune.
Hmm. Why does schadenfreude exist? I don't seem to have that emotional response to the humiliation of someone I don't like or don't know.
Likewise, I don't understand absurdist humor. (I enjoy wordplay and puns, though.)
Do you mean ev-psych why? I dunno. Beyond that it's basically built in. Go read about some of the glorious trolling crusades that have been undertaken for the lulz and you will begin to get that lulz-itch.
I suspect there's a lot of baseline variation there; for some people the sense of schadenfreude is very small and easily overwhelmed by empathy. Case in point: comedies that consist entirely of unsympathetic characters being jerks to each other (my go-to examples are Arrested Development and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia), which some people think are the most hilarious thing ever and some other people think are the most painful thing to watch ever.
I think mr bean is terrifying.
It's depressingly hard for humans to turn on sympathy over the internet and across tribal boundaries. All that has to happen for lulz to be the dominating drive is that sympathy doesn't get started (by conscious effort, scifi morality, good upbringing, some near-mode switch, whatever)
You're talking about most people; I am not most people. After some reading on Dunbar's number I decided to train myself to think of all strangers as agents not unlike me who merely grew up in different circumstances. Unfortunately most people don't do that. It helps that my empathy is abnormally strong to begin with.
I was not asking about empathy. I was asking about why it is pleasurable to watch the humiliation of someone you have literally zero connection to.