Pleasure In Response Research Articles

Effects of Baihui electroacupuncture in a rat model of depression.

BackgroundThis study aimed to investigate the effect of electroacupuncture (EA) on behavior in a rat model of chronic unpredictable mild stress (CUMS) and to explore the underlying molecular mechanisms.MethodsA total of 45 adult male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into three groups: the control, CUMS, and CUMS plus EA groups. Rats in the CUMS and EA groups were subjected to a 3-week CUMS condition, while rats in the EA group received EA at the Baihui (GV 20) acupoint (2 Hz, 0.6 mA) for 10 min once daily before being subjected to the CUMS condition. The sucrose preference test (SPT) was used as a measure to infer activation of the pleasure response to depression-like behaviour. After the behavioral test, 5-bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) was intraperitoneally injected (100 mg/kg) and brain samples were collected 24 h later for the detection of hippocampal BrdU. Cell proliferation was determined according to the proportion of BrdU-positive cells. Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) expression was detected.ResultsThe severity of anhedonia, BDNF+ cells, and BrdU+ neurons in DG significantly decreased in CUMS rats, and was accompanied by a reduced BDNF and BrdU+ expression (P<0.05). After EA, the low levels of BDNF+ cells and BrdU+ expression and the depression-like behavior increased markedly (P<0.05).ConclusionsEA contributes to neuroprotection against CUMS by enhancing BDNF expression and improving hippocampal neurogenesis.

Acute effect of bodyweight-based strength training on blood pressure of hypertensive older adults: A randomized crossover clinical trial

ABSTRACT Background: Strength Training (ST) reduces the cardiovascular risk of hypertensive elderly people; however, there is a need for efficient and low-cost ST programs that aim to reduce blood pressure (BP) in elderly people with adherence and affectivity in this population. Objective: Evaluate the acute effect on BP and satisfaction with the practice of bodyweight-based strength training (BWST) in hypertensive older adults. Methods: Participants performed a BWST session and a control session (CS). The BWST consisted of six exercises, with three sets of 30 seconds. In the CS, no activity was performed. BP was measured before and at 0, 10, 20, and 30 minutes post-session. Participants’ satisfaction was assessed. Results: Eleven older adults (65.8 ± 4.6 years; 7 men) participated in the study. There was an increase (p = .028) in systolic BP immediately after BWST, returning to baseline values in the intervals 10, 20, and 30 post-section. In the CS there was an increase (p = .009) 30 minutes post-session compared to 20 minutes. Between sessions, a lower systolic BP was found in BWST (−6.54 ± 3.31; p = .048) 30 minutes post-sessions. For satisfaction, 82% of participants were “totally satisfied” with BWST. Conclusion: The SBP is lower 30 minutes after BWST session than control session, and BWST promoted a pleasant affective response in hypertensive older adults.

The Real‐Time Cognitive Value of Eating Kale, Helping, and Doing Something Special: “Concurrent Experience Evaluation” (CEE), Its Drivers and Moderators, and Research Directions

After reviewing prior work regarding components of experience value, I present the concept of “Concurrent Experience Evaluation” (“CEE”), which expands the prior focus on experienced pain and pleasure in response to a stimulus/event. Specifically, the value of an experience is also determined by the concurrent (during‐the‐experience) cognitive assessment of the event relative to the person's associated goal progress/regression. CEE can account for during‐the‐experience and subsequent choices that people make. Examples of CEE include cognitive evaluations that enhance the experience value such as “good for me” (while eating kale), “I'm getting my money's worth” (while using a new camera), and “I'm having a cultural experience” (while visiting a museum), or detract from the experience such as “I shouldn't be doing this” (while smoking or overeating) and “should have chosen the other line” (while waiting at the supermarket checkout). Although prior research has examined hedonic experiences and their context (e.g., being with friends, commuting, colonoscopy) as well as what else the mind may process during an experience (e.g., wandering, thinking of past and future decisions), the concurrent value derived from the cognitive evaluation of the goal implications of an experience has not been identified as a separate experience value component. I examine and illustrate the CEE concept, its determinants, moderators, and implications, as well as its distinctive characteristics as compared with other value perspectives and during‐the‐experience mental processes. Integrating the CEE framework with prior work regarding experience evaluations, I outline a program for future CEE research.

RESPON PENGENDARA BERMOTOR DAN TINGKAT KEPATUHAN TRAFFICT LIGHT TERHADAP KEBERADAAN KANOPI POHON DI PERSIMPANGAN JALAN KECAMATAN MATARAM

Trees canopy as ecosystem services provided pleasantness activity for motorcycle rider broad daylight. This study was analysed of role thees canopy and drivers response at Mataram sub-district intersection. This study was carried out using the expost pasto approach with examining the relationship of more than one free variable (extensive and criteria of threes canopy) to the comfort and level of traffic light violations at the Mataram Sub-district intersection. Results of this study indicate that tree canopies provide a pleasantness of driving and orderly traffic lights. The tree canopy at Gubernuran intersection with shady criteria, this area of the canopy covering the entire road body has a level of comfort of motorbike riders around 74.4% with a relatively small number of violations about 95.33. Whereas the Pasar Pagutan intersection has open tree canopy criteria, the motorbike driver's pleasantness response is about 62.5% the average number of violations 177. Therefore, existence of a tree canopy around the crossroads has the effect of driving comfort thereby reducing the level of violation of traffic signs.

Software Tools for Handling Information for the Internet of Things

The analysis of methods of creation of software for information processing for the Internet of things is described. The methods of creating separate stages of the development of applications for reading information and managing Internet speeches are explored. Comparative tables of efficiency of different methods are given, depending on development criteria. A table for analyzing the effectiveness of a combination of different methods for creating front-end and back-end parts of information processing tools for the Internet of Things has also been developed. In this stage of the development of modern technologies, the important place does young, but a very prospective direction is the internet. Specifically, special warnings a technical realization is provided. Differential developments, including the following, before connecting to the network, connect to the user through any wireless network, and enhanced the use of this device. They are constantly improving and appearing new. Urgently important to provide comfort use with a maximum remote control and number of functions, an important role will play the speed and comfort the data management additional. Software internet risk is strongly risks, and that and users 'requirements to contribute and functionality of applications rise the quantity of fast. That the developer appears complex, currently intractable, problem: you need to develop application with a convenient and pleasant user interface designs, maximum performance and response to user actions, and with broad functionality. Theme is actual, that this sphere is very strongly developing, in all your funds investigated in that foreign year. Internet range development is used in different industries, as industry, and sustainable life. Specially in medicine; in the military sphere; in the sales area; in the field of personnel selection, and others. This technology makes life of people and makes it faster. The client, going into the application, sees the display of the front-end parts of web application, that is, the client side of the user interface to the software and hardware part of the service. It contains information about the object, which is taken from the database through the Internet through back-end, that is, software-hardware part of the service. To change certain parameters of the object, the client makes adjustments to the corresponding field of the application, this data fall into the client side of the user interface, from which are redirected to the software and hardware part of the service. After processing – data through the Internet goes to the server. Checking whether the user's requirements for object changes are to display the status of the object in the application. This method is not the only, but the simplest and most visual. In the research component of this article, only the most effective and most common methods of developing the front-end and back-end parts of the application are considered. Ref. 12, fig. 3, tabl. 3.

Proof of concept: Effect of GLP-1 agonist on food hedonic responses and taste sensitivity in poor controlled type 2 diabetic patients

AimsGLP-1 analogues decrease food intake and have great promise for the fight against obesity. Little is known about their effects on food hedonic sensations and taste perception in poor controlled patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D). Materials and methodsEighteen T2D patients with BMI ≥25 kg/m2 and poor controlled glycemia were studied before and after 3 months of treatment with Liraglutide. Detection thresholds for salty, sweet and bitter tastes, optimal preferences, olfactory liking, wanting and recalled liking for several food items were assessed. Subjects also answered questionnaires to measure their attitudes to food. ResultsT2D patients had a significant decrease in bodyweight and HbA1c after treatment with Liraglutide. Liraglutide improved gustative detection threshold of sweet flavors, and decreased wanting for sweet foods and recalled liking for fatty foods. It also led to a decrease in feelings of hunger. ConclusionsLiraglutide increases sensitivity to sweet tastes and decreases pleasure responses for fatty foods in poor controlled T2D patients, and is of particular interest in the understanding of the mechanisms of weight loss. Clinical trialNCT02674893.

A neurocognitive investigation of the impact of socializing with a robot on empathy for pain.

To what extent can humans form social relationships with robots? In the present study, we combined functional neuroimaging with a robot socializing intervention to probe the flexibility of empathy, a core component of social relationships, towards robots. Twenty-six individuals underwent identical fMRI sessions before and after being issued a social robot to take home and interact with over the course of a week. While undergoing fMRI, participants observed videos of a human actor or a robot experiencing pain or pleasure in response to electrical stimulation. Repetition suppression of activity in the pain network, a collection of brain regions associated with empathy and emotional responding, was measured to test whether socializing with a social robot leads to greater overlap in neural mechanisms when observing human and robotic agents experiencing pain or pleasure. In contrast to our hypothesis, functional region-of-interest analyses revealed no change in neural overlap for agents after the socializing intervention. Similarly, no increase in activation when observing a robot experiencing pain emerged post-socializing. Whole-brain analysis showed that, before the socializing intervention, superior parietal and early visual regions are sensitive to novel agents, while after socializing, medial temporal regions show agent sensitivity. A region of the inferior parietal lobule was sensitive to novel emotions, but only during the pre-socializing scan session. Together, these findings suggest that a short socialization intervention with a social robot does not lead to discernible differences in empathy towards the robot, as measured by behavioural or brain responses. We discuss the extent to which long-term socialization with robots might shape social cognitive processes and ultimately our relationships with these machines. This article is part of the theme issue 'From social brains to social robots: applying neurocognitive insights to human-robot interaction'.

Putting the flight in “fight-or-flight”: Testosterone reactivity to skydiving is modulated by autonomic activation

Sensation-seeking (SS) involves the tendency to pursue exciting activities, potentially including risky behaviors (e.g., substance use, risky sexual behavior). Testosterone is associated with cortisol, SS, and autonomic nervous system (ANS) functioning. Testosterone reactivity/recovery during sky-diving and its relationship to cortisol response, ANS response and SS were examined. Forty-four participants provided reactive saliva samples and autonomic activity data before, during and after sky-diving and as well as basal day saliva samples. Testosterone reactivity/recovery to skydiving was significantly greater than basal day measurements. Testosterone responsivity to skydiving was predicted by increased cortisol, increased sympathetic activity (heart rate) and reduced parasympathetic activity (RMSSD). Independent of physiological effects, increased SS predicted testosterone responsivity to skydiving. These data suggest that testosterone reactivity, and its relationship to ANS responsivity, may be associated with pleasurable responses to risky/intense situations. These data may be useful in developing novel intervention strategies for risky behaviors.

The impact of virtual reality versus 2D pornography on sexual arousal and presence

The psychological impact of pornography consumption remains a contentious issue, with perspectives ranging from seeing it as a healthy expression of sexuality to a potentially dangerous addiction. Understanding how novel technologies can change how pornography is experienced is crucial for grappling with the effects of pornography. With the advent of consumer virtual reality (VR) technology in recent years, VR pornography has become increasingly popular. To date, we are not aware of any research that has compared people's responses to VR versus typical pornography. In our study, 95 heterosexual participants (47 females) viewed either VR or 2D pornography (between subjects), from both voyeuristic and first person perspectives (within subjects), and rated their subjective arousal and presence. Consistent with excitement about VR, men found VR pornography more arousing than 2D scenes, but this was not the case for women. Rather than VR being generally experienced as more arousing, we found that a first person or ‘participant’ perspective consistently induced greater arousal relative to a voyeuristic view, regardless of presentation medium in both genders. However, VR did consistently elicit a greater sense of presence than typical pornography, and presence was positively correlated with sexual arousal. Our findings indicate that under certain conditions, VR can enhance the experience of arousal and pleasure in response to pornography, and generally facilitates presence. Clearly, however, the immersive capabilities of technology are not the only, and likely not the strongest, predictor of sexual arousal, perhaps tempering concerns that VR could greatly exacerbate compulsive pornography consumption.

Putting the flight in “Fight-or-Flight”: Testosterone reactivity to skydiving is modulated by autonomic activation

Sensation-seeking (SS) involves the tendency to pursue exciting activities, potentially including risky behaviors (e.g., substance use, risky sexual behavior). Testosterone is associated with cortisol, SS, and autonomic nervous system (ANS) functioning. Testosterone reactivity/recovery during sky-diving and its relationship to cortisol response, ANS response and SS were examined. Forty-four participants provided reactive saliva samples and autonomic activity data before, during and after sky-diving and as well as basal day saliva samples. Testosterone reactivity/recovery to skydiving was significantly greater than basal day measurements. Testosterone responsivity to skydiving was predicted by increased cortisol, increased sympathetic activity (heart rate) and reduced parasympathetic activity (RMSSD). Independent of physiological effects, increased SS predicted testosterone responsivity to skydiving. These data suggest that testosterone reactivity, and its relationship to ANS responsivity, may be associated with pleasurable responses to risky/intense situations. These data may be useful in developing novel intervention strategies for risky behaviors.

Abstract # 3110 Reward functioning following an acute bout of exercise among healthy adults

Exercise is thought to exert beneficial effects on reward functioning, as it alters neurotransmitter levels in reward-related circuits. However, there has been little investigation of the effect of exercise on reward functions in humans. We hypothesized a bout of exercise would increase motivation for and pleasurable responses to rewards in healthy adults. We also examined possible moderators of exercise’s effects. Thirty-five participants completed exercise (20 min run at 105% of lactate threshold intensity) and rest (20 min sit) sessions in a randomized, counterbalanced order. After each activity, participants completed measures of motivation for (Effort Expenditure for Rewards Task) and pleasurable responses to (International Affective Picture System Task) rewards. Exercise did not increase motivation for or pleasurable responses to rewards on average. However, there was a moderating effect of years running, as individuals who had been runners for more years showed increased motivation for rewards after exercise, while individuals with less years running showed decreases. Further, baseline heart rate variability negatively correlated with the effects of exercise on arousal. As this was not specific to picture type, it suggests a dysregulation of emotional responses after exercise in individuals with low HRV. Our results indicate that baseline characteristics may have important moderating influences on the effect of exercise on emotional functioning. Previous experience with the exercise used should be examined as a possible moderator in exercise interventions.

Perceived Exertion and Affect From Tai Chi, Yoga, and Stretching Classes for Elderly Women.

Tai Chi, yoga, and stretching regimens are gaining popularity as alternatives to more traditional exercise, but there is scant research regarding participants' perceived exertion and affective responses to these practices. We compared experienced states of perceived exertion, feelings of pleasure/displeasure, and arousal in 70 elderly women enrolled in groups of Tai Chi ( n = 26), yoga ( n = 25), or stretching ( n = 19) classes. Mean rates of perceived exertion, feelings of pleasure, and arousal responses were significantly higher over the time course of all three groups, while the overall mean perceived exertion ( Somewhat Hard on the Borg CR-10 scale) and pleasure responses (∼ Very Good on the Feeling Scale) were similar between them. The circumplex model of affect showed that changes occurred in the high-activation pleasure quadrant (energy on the Felt Arousal Scale). From a practical perspective, the exercise intensity and affective responses elicited during these classes made participants feel good and infused with energy, likely creating a positive memory and reinforcing continued physical activity participation.

Hobbes’s great divorce: civil religion in comparative and historical perspective

ABSTRACTThomas Hobbes’s Leviathan is well known for presenting a political philosophy based on a mechanistic account of human beings that offers the pain–pleasure response (or the peace–fear response) as a basis on which to make political choices. Although it has been subjected to countless treatments over the centuries, its account of civil religion in Part 3, “Of a Christian Commonwealth”, based on a highly original reading of the Bible, is deserving of further examination. Following an overview of a long line of pagan and later monotheistic Christian and Muslim thinkers who advance the position that religion is a way of civilizing or uniting the masses, including Thucydides, Cicero, Augustine, Ibn Sina (Avicenna), Ibn Rushd (Averroes) and Pomponazzi, amongst others, I argue that Hobbes turns this notion on its head by arguing that religion can cause the de-civilizing of the masses, and indeed can foment civil war, leading him to the solution of separating belief from practice, with the former a solely private matter and the latter the exclusive purview of the state. In its Hobbesian schema, this great divorce of belief and practice – rather than a call for tolerance or pluralism – is sacrifice that is necessary in order to create the religious homogeneity required to sustain the body politic in the form of the great Leviathan.

Art Horror, Reactive Attitudes, and Compassionate Slashers

In “The Immorality of Horror Films,” philosopher and film scholar Gianluca Di Muzio proposes an analytic argument that aims to prove horror narratives, particularly slashers, unethical. His Argument from Reactive Attitudes contests slashers encourage pleasurable responses towards depictions of torture and death, which is possible only by suspending compassionate reactions. Doing so degrades sympathy and empathy, causing desensitization. This article will argue Di Muzio’s ARA, while valuable to discussion of art horror and morbidity, fails to meet its intended aim. The ARA contains structural flaws in its logic, compounded by reliance on insufficient evidence. Additionally, Di Muzio does not adequately consider or rebut prominent aesthetic concerns, including ontological and moral distance of representations. Lastly, the argument utilizes a flawed classificatory schema that undermines its primary goal. Even narrowly confined to slashers, the ARA cannot explain alternative reasons for engaging with horror, nor does it account for those nuanced slasher works designed to foster compassion. The project concludes by offering a modified ARA with greater potential to accurately analyze the interrelation between art horror and morality.

Reward behaviour is regulated by the strength of hippocampus-nucleus accumbens synapses.

Reward drives motivated behaviours and is essential for survival, and therefore there is strong evolutionary pressure to retain contextual information about rewarding stimuli. This drive may be abnormally strong, such as in addiction, or weak, such as in depression, in which anhedonia (loss of pleasure in response to rewarding stimuli) is a prominent symptom. Hippocampal input to the shell of the nucleus accumbens (NAc) is important for driving NAc activity1,2 and activity-dependent modulation of the strength of this input may contribute to the proper regulation of goal-directed behaviours. However, there have been few robust descriptions of the mechanisms that underlie the induction or expression of long-term potentiation (LTP) at these synapses, and there is, to our knowledge, no evidence about whether such plasticity contributes to reward-related behaviour. Here we show that high-frequency activity induces LTP at hippocampus-NAc synapses in mice via canonical, but dopamine-independent, mechanisms. The induction of LTP at this synapse in vivo drives conditioned place preference, and activity at this synapse is required for conditioned place preference in response to a natural reward. Conversely, chronic stress, which induces anhedonia, decreases the strength of this synapse and impairs LTP, whereas antidepressant treatment is accompanied by a reversal of these stress-induced changes. We conclude that hippocampus-NAc synapses show activity-dependent plasticity and suggest that their strength may be critical for contextual reward behaviour.

Effects of an acute bout of physical exercise on reward functioning in healthy adults.

Exercise has been proposed as a treatment for several psychiatric disorders. Exercise may act in part through beneficial effects on reward functioning, as it alters neurotransmitter levels in reward-related circuits. However, there has been little investigation of the effect of exercise on reward functions in humans. We hypothesized an acute bout of exercise would increase motivation for and pleasurable responses to rewards in healthy humans. In addition, we examined possible moderators of exercise's effects, including demographics, fitness and previous exercise experience. Thirty-five participants completed exercise and sedentary control sessions in randomized, counterbalanced order on separate days. Immediately after each activity, participants completed measures of motivation for and pleasurable responses to rewards, consisting of willingness to exert effort for monetary rewards and subjective responses to emotional pictures. Exercise did not increase motivation or pleasurable responses on average. However, individuals who had been running for more years showed increases in motivation for rewards after exercise, while individuals with less years running showed decreases. Further, individuals with higher resting heart rate variability reported lower arousal in response to all emotional pictures after exercise, while individuals with low heart rate variability reported increased arousal in response to all emotional pictures after exercise. General fitness did not have similar moderating effects. In conclusion, acute exercise improved reward functioning only in individuals accustomed to that type of exercise. This suggests a possible conditioned effect of exercise on reward functioning. Previous experience with the exercise used should be examined as a possible moderator in exercise treatment trials.

Longitudinal Associations Between Anhedonia and Body Mass Index Trajectory Groups Among Adolescents

PurposeAlthough evidence suggests that anhedonia—a reduced ability to experience pleasure in response to rewarding stimuli—may predict weight gain during adolescence, it remains unclear whether changes in anhedonia during adolescence are associated with changes in body mass index (BMI). This study examines longitudinal associations between changes in anhedonia and developmental trajectories of BMI during adolescence. MethodsSelf-report measures of anhedonia and BMI were collected at five semiannual assessments among students from 10 high schools in Los Angeles, CA, area (N = 3,396) followed up from the 9th grade to the 11th grade. Four BMI trajectories were identified using growth mixture modeling: (1) stable normative weight; (2) overweight to normative weight (i.e., decreasing BMI); (3) overweight to chronically obese (increasing BMI); and (4) normative weight to overweight (increasing BMI). Latent growth curve modeling estimated baseline level and changes in anhedonia. A multinomial logistic regression model tested associations of baseline level and slope of anhedonia with the four BMI trajectory groups. ResultsCompared with the stable normative BMI trajectory group, each 1-unit standard deviation increase in anhedonia slope increased the odds of membership in the overweight to chronically obese group (odds ratio [OR] [95% confidence interval {CI}] = 1.29 [1.09–1.49], p < .001) and in the normative weight to overweight group (OR [95% CI] = 1.28 [1.04–1.53], p = .006), and decreased the odds of membership in the overweight to normative weight group (OR [95% CI] = .78 [.57–.95], p = .01). ConclusionsAcross a 2-year period of high school, the rate of change in anhedonia is associated with certain BMI trajectories linked with poorer metabolic health. Increasing anhedonia may be an important risk factor to consider in adolescent obesity prevention.

Molecular role of dopamine in anhedonia linked to reward deficiency syndrome (RDS) and anti- reward systems.

Anhedonia is a condition that leads to the loss of feelings pleasure in response to natural reinforcers like food, sex, exercise, and social activities. This disorder occurs in addiction, and an array of related neuropsychiatric syndromes, including schizophrenia, depression, and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Anhedonia may by due to derangements in mesolimbic dopaminergic pathways and their terminal fields (e.g., striatum, amygdala, and prefrontal cortex) that persist long after the traces of the causative drugs are eliminated (pharmacokinetically). Here we postulate that anhedonia is not a distinct entity but is rather an epiphenomenon of hypodopaminergic states and traits arising from the interaction of genetic traits and epigenetic neurobiological alterations in response to environmental influences. Moreover, dopaminergic activity is rather complex, and so it may give rise to differential pathophysiological processes such as incentive sensitization, aberrant learning and stress-like "anti-reward" phenomena. These processes may have additive, synergistic or antagonistic interactions with the concurrent reward deficiency states leading in some instances to more severe and long-lasting symptoms. Operant understanding of the neurogenetic antecedents to reward deficiency syndrome (RDS) and the elucidation of reward gene polymorphisms may provide a map for accessing an individual's genetic risk for developing Anhedonia. Prevention techniques that can restore homeostatic balance via physiological activation of dopaminergic receptors (D2/D3) may be instrumental for targeting not only anhedonia per se but also drug craving and relapse.

Visual and physical affective touch delivered by a rotary tactile stimulation device: A human psychophysical study

The discovery that pleasant touch is coded by C-tactile fibers has generated considerable research interest and increased understanding of the skin as a channel for social information via cutaneous senses. However, no study has differentiated between the pleasant response to visual and tactile non-human stimulations. Our study investigated pleasant touch in which the visual and haptic touch information was obtained from an affective, but non-social experience, by a custom-built non-human device. Participants (n=19) received soft brush strokes on their lower left arm delivered by a rotary tactile stimulator (physical session) or watched a video of an arm being stroked by a rotary tactile stimulator (visual session). The brush strokes were delivered at the same velocities (0.3, 1, 3, 10, 30cm/s) and force (0.4N) in both sessions. After each trial, participants rated the pleasantness of the touch. Analysis of variance was used to assess the effects of velocity and modality (visual touch vs. physical touch) on the pleasantness rating. Participants rated strokes between 1 and 10cm/s as most pleasant under both conditions. The pleasantness rating patterns differed significantly among velocities; however, no significant differences were found between modalities. Visual and physical (without human-to-human interaction) touch elicited similar behavioral responses, including an inverted U-shaped perception of pleasantness. These findings suggest that the pleasantness of touch is influenced by the velocity of the strokes in both visual and physical touch with a non-human stimulation.

Machiavellianism and Schadenfreude in Women's Friendships.

The present study investigated the relationship between Machiavellianism, envy, competition, and schadenfreude in women's same-sex friendships. Women ( N = 133) completed an online questionnaire measuring Machiavellianism, envy, competition, and three author-generated vignettes measuring expressed schadenfreude in relation to a same-sex friend. Women with higher levels of Machiavellianism expressed greater feelings of pleasure in response to their same-sex friend's misfortunes in a romantic relationship and their physical appearance but not in relation to academic abilities. Envy predicted feelings of schadenfreude in academic and romantic relationships while competition predicted feelings of schadenfreude in all three scenarios. Future research should explore how characteristics of the target and different forms of envy may influence responses to a friend's misfortune in individuals with higher levels of Machiavellianism.