In shortReaders who land here meaning Fremdschämen rather than Schadenfreude are usually searching for phrases like “secondhand embarrassment word”, “why do I cringe watching other people fail”, “fremdschamen meaning”.

In shortFremdschämen. 2011 — Krach and colleagues publish fMRI work in PLOS ONE explicitly naming the emotion — 'vicarious embarrassment', Fremdscham, embarrassment-by-proxy — and locate it in the anterior cingulate cortex and left anterior insula.

1. 2011

   Fremdschämen. Krach and colleagues publish fMRI work in PLOS ONE explicitly naming the emotion — 'vicarious embarrassment', Fremdscham, embarrassment-by-proxy — and locate it in the anterior cingulate cortex and left anterior insula.

2. 2019–2020

   Schadenfreude. Wang, Lilienfeld and Rochat's tripartite motivational model — Aggression, Rivalry, Justice — becomes one of the influential breakdowns, summarised alongside a rival four-type model in a 2020 Frontiers in Psychology study of schadenfreude on social media.

• FremdschämenUntranslatable & Rare Feelings
• SchadenfreudeUntranslatable & Rare Feelings