:: COMPARE ::
The short answer
Exact opposites in posture. Schadenfreude enjoys another's fall from a safe distance; Fremdscham collapses the distance and makes their fall hurt you. The 2011 imaging found the latter recruits the anterior cingulate cortex and anterior insula — the empathy-and-pain network.
Side by side
| Aspect | Fremdschämen | Schadenfreude |
|---|---|---|
| Their failure | Hurts you | Pleases you |
| Distance | Collapsed | Maintained |
| Requires | Empathy | Comparison |
| Register | Colloquial | Unmarked |
What each one means
Fremdschämen — properly the reflexive verb sich fremdschämen — is cringing with embarrassment on behalf of someone else, at behaviour you find excruciating. The noun for the feeling is Fremdscham, and unusually for a feeling word, it's been imaged in a brain scanner.
Full definition of Fremdschämen →Schadenfreude is pleasure taken in someone else's misfortune — a completely ordinary German word that English borrowed and made exotic.
Full definition of Schadenfreude →