Passive aggression is indirect action; schadenfreude is hidden pleasure at others' misfortune.

Hostility can play a role in both passive aggression and schadenfreude.

Assertiveness is the balanced choice between passivity and aggression, aiding problem-solving.

While passive aggression, rooted in hidden anger and resentment, involves a communication style that’s indirect,1 silent, or shown through blatant inactivity, schadenfreude is an emotion or feeling that does not come forward in action or lack of it.

Let’s say you’ve been tormented by a bullying co-worker. Suddenly, it’s time for performance reviews, and there’s even a departmental promotion that several, including this co-worker, covet.

You see your co-worker leave the boss’s office frustrated. Later that day, it’s announced that another colleague has gotten the nod, the coveted position. You are thrilled that your office tormentor did not prevail.

Experiencing pleasure or joy from someone’s disappointments, humiliations, or other troubles is classic schadenfreude. Deriving pleasure from pain you’ve inflicted on another might also have shades of sadism. However, that’s a darker personality issue where the perpetrator has a desire for dominance or power.

Schadenfreude was adopted from the German combination of schaden, meaning damage or harm, and freude, meaning joy or pleasure. Literally, it translates to “harm-joy,” and Emory researchers have identified a dehumanization aspect to it as well.2 In today’s parlance, we describe schadenfreude more as a phrase, such as gloating over misfortune or armchair malice, versus a single-word synonym, such as epicaricacy.

This ancient Greek word means the same; it’s so obscure to be barely recognized in English. (And no, the word schadenfreude has nothing to do with Sigmund Freud, the Austrian neurologist and founder of psychoanalysis.)

Can Schadenfreude and Passive Aggression Exist Together?

Yes, indeed, but not always. Here’s an........

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