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pleasure we experience at witnessing the misfortunes suffered by members of rivaltribes) and in Glückschmerz (the displeasure we experience at witnessing good fortuneenjoyed by members of rival tribes). Recent studies of diehard sports fans led by MinaCikara of Harvard show that the ventral striatum, which is the pleasure center of thebrain, lights up not only when the fan’s team does well, but also when a rival team lostto another team. Worse, it also lit up when players on the rival team were injured. Infact, the fans who experienced greater Schadenfreude at seeing a rival injured werealso more disappointed at news that the injury was not serious. Moreover, fans whoseventral striatum are active in response to a rival team’s suffering are actually morewilling to harm rival fans, and less willing to relieve the pain of rival fans. 32No one who has witnessed melees at major sporting events can be too surprised bythose findings, but the results apply in contexts other than long-standing sports rivalries.The same neural responses that show up in the brains of die-hard fans also appear intest subjects who have been assigned randomly to groups that are asked to competewith other groups. And those neural responses apparently are not driven by empathyfor the subject’s group, but by antipathy toward the competing group. 33In other words,we are wired to wish ill toward other groups and to enjoy their suffering, even whenmembership in the groups was assigned randomly and recently. And our ill-will isn’tdiminished by winning. 34No wonder pick-up basketball games sometimes turn bloody.32 M. Cikara, E. Bruneau, J.J. Van Bavel & R. Saxe, Their pain gives us pleasure: How intergroupdynamics shape empathic failures and counter-empathic responses, 55 Journal of Experimental SocialPsychology 110-12 (2014).33 Id. at 122.34 Id. at 119.12