I just watched the Purge 3 and noticed that they include characters intentionally there for you to dislike, so they can satisfy you with their misfortunes. In the first movie, it's a very satisfying brutal smashing of the woman's face on a desk. In the third movie, it jumps to an uncut scene of shooting a young teenage girl in the face with a shotgun, as well as a mass shooting at a church. I find it somewhat disturbing that I enjoy seeing this, and am also unsure if its a bad thing or not. What is the psychological term for this? I'd like to read about it.
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2$\begingroup$ Hey Nathan, welcome to Cognitive Science :) I'm pretty sure, you could have found the answer to this question yourself by googeling for example: "term enjoying seeing bad characters die". Such an initial research from yourself is very appreciated on this site and if you can't find the answer you can still ask your question here. Ideally, you would then first explain what your initial research brought up or didn't and then write down the question. $\endgroup$– awakentingAug 10, 2016 at 21:11
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$\begingroup$ Schadenfreude: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schadenfreude $\endgroup$– Arnon Weinberg ♦Aug 14, 2016 at 0:47
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1$\begingroup$ I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it is better suited for English Language & Usage $\endgroup$– Robin Kramer-ten HaveAug 17, 2016 at 5:51
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$\begingroup$ It'd be jargon from psychology. So you'd ask a psychologist rather than an english teacher. $\endgroup$– mr dankerAug 17, 2016 at 13:43
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The term you are looking for is the german word Schadenfreude which was adopted into English. The wikipedia page that I linked here should be a good start for reading and you could continue by checking the resources from the section "Scientific studies" there.
