The Dark Side of Brand Community: Inter-Group Stereotyping, Trash Talk, and Schadenfreude

By Thomas M. Hickman, James C. Ward. 2007

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Positive and negative behaviours resulting from brand attachment: The moderating effects of attachment styles (2018, methodology): “Schadenfreude occurs when consumers of a brand derive emotional pleasure from rival brands’ misfortunes (Hickman and Ward, 2007).”
The role of ideal self-congruence and brand attachment in consumers’ negative behaviour: Compulsive buying and external trash-talking (2018, methodology): “Thus, these consumers tend to consumers conduct trash-talking because they are active member of the brand community (Hickman & Ward, 2007).”
The roles of brand community and community engagement in building brand trust on social media (2014, background): “Hickman and Ward (2007) found that identification with a brand community can lead members to trash talk outsiders and also have feelings of schadenfreude, which refers to feeling joyful from someone else’s misery.”
Brand rivalry and community conflict (2013, background): “Hickman and Ward (2007) identify and measure this rivalry as trash talk, an example of the dark side of brand community identification.”