A sadist is someone who enjoys causing pain or suffering to others, whether physical or psychological. This pleasure can range from mild enjoyment of someone else’s misfortune to severe, pathological cruelty. Sadistic traits exist on a spectrum, and while the word often conjures images of extreme violence, most sadism in daily life takes subtler forms: humiliating a coworker, trolling strangers online, or finding entertainment in someone else’s distress.
Everyday Sadism vs. Clinical Sadism
Psychologists distinguish between two broad categories. Clinical or sexual sadism involves obtaining sexual gratification from inflicting pain, and an estimated 2 to 5 percent of people fall into this category. The more common variety, sometimes called “subclinical” or “everyday” sadism, shows up in about 7 percent of people in research samples, though the true number is likely higher because people underreport socially undesirable traits. One study of veterans in a psychiatric outpatient clinic found sadistic personality traits or disorders in roughly 8 percent of patients.
Everyday sadism doesn’t necessarily involve physical violence. It can look like deliberately seeking out opportunities to watch or cause misery: choosing cruel humor, enjoying violent media with unusual intensity, engaging in cyberbullying, or subtly undermining people at work. Researchers describe it as actively taking pleasure in another person’s agony, rather than simply being indifferent to it.
The Dark Tetrad
In personality psychology, sadism is grouped with three other “dark” traits: narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy. Together, these four form what researchers call the Dark Tetrad. All four share a common core of low empathy, manipulativeness, and a tendency toward deception and aggression. Sadism was added to the original “Dark Triad” because research kept showing it predicted harmful behavior independently of the other three traits, particularly when it came to interpersonal cruelty and cyberbullying.
How Sadism Differs From Psychopathy
People often conflate sadism with psychopathy, but the two work differently at a psychological level. Psychopaths have reduced emotional empathy, meaning they don’t feel what others feel. But they can often read other people’s emotions just fine. Sadists, by contrast, show deficits in both types of empathy: they struggle to read others’ emotions and to feel them. The critical difference, though, is motivation. Psychopaths tend to be goal-driven. When they hurt someone, it’s usually instrumental, a means to get money, power, or some other external reward. The harm is a side effect, not the point.
For sadists, the suffering itself is the reward. Research has shown that people with high sadistic traits experience greater enjoyment when they observe someone in more severe distress, and that witnessing pain acts as a form of positive reinforcement. Interestingly, sadists with stronger cognitive empathy (the ability to understand what someone else is thinking) tend to engage in more antisocial behavior, not less. One explanation is that understanding exactly how much pain you’re causing makes the experience more gratifying for someone with sadistic tendencies.
What Happens in the Brain
Brain imaging studies offer a window into what makes sadism distinct. When people with sadistic traits view images of others in pain, two brain regions light up more than they do in non-sadistic individuals. The amygdala, a region involved in processing emotionally significant events, responds specifically to pain rather than neutral images, suggesting a targeted reaction to suffering. The ventral striatum, a key part of the brain’s reward system, shows heightened activity during both pain and anticipation of pain, the same region that activates when most people anticipate a reward like food or money. In other words, the sadistic brain appears to process someone else’s pain as something rewarding.
What Causes Sadistic Traits
No single factor creates a sadist, but childhood physical abuse stands out in the research. A study of incarcerated youth found that the severity of physical abuse, as rated by experts rather than self-report, was specifically associated with developing sadistic traits. Other forms of trauma, including emotional and sexual abuse, did not show the same connection. This suggests something particular about experiencing physical violence: it may teach some children to associate dominance and the infliction of pain with power or control. The combination of physical abuse history and sadistic traits also carried the highest risk for future violent behavior, more than either factor alone.
Sadism in the Workplace and Relationships
In professional settings, everyday sadism often manifests as workplace incivility: ignoring colleagues, demeaning subordinates, breaking social norms, or undermining someone’s self-esteem. Research shows that sadistic traits predict interpersonal deviance at work, including behavior that violates organizational norms. What starts as low-level rudeness can escalate into deliberate acts of revenge or sustained patterns of harassment. People high in everyday sadism tend to actively look for opportunities to inflict discomfort, which makes them particularly damaging in environments where they hold power over others.
In personal relationships, the pattern is similar but more intimate. Sadistic individuals may use humiliation, emotional manipulation, or controlling behavior to generate distress in their partners or family members. Because the suffering itself provides satisfaction, this behavior tends to be self-reinforcing and difficult to change without intervention.
Consensual BDSM Is Not the Same Thing
The word “sadism” in everyday conversation can blur an important line. Consensual BDSM, which involves the deliberate use of dominance, submission, bondage, or pain within safe and agreed-upon boundaries, is fundamentally different from clinical or everyday sadism. The distinction comes down to consent, mutual enjoyment, and respect for boundaries. In BDSM, activities occur within collaborative social interactions where both parties find the experience enjoyable. Some researchers use the term “honorable sadist” to describe someone who provides pain or intense sensation only to consenting partners while demonstrating care and respecting limits.
This distinction has gained formal recognition. The World Health Organization’s earlier classification system grouped all sadomasochism together as a paraphilia regardless of consent. The updated version, published in 2018, specifically excludes consensual sadism from its definition of coercive sexual sadism disorder. In clinical terms, consensual BDSM is no longer considered a disorder.
Can Sadistic Traits Be Treated
Sadistic traits are notoriously difficult to address therapeutically, in part because the behavior is self-reinforcing. Causing distress produces pleasure, which motivates more of the same behavior. Most treatment approaches focus on building empathy, developing alternative sources of satisfaction, and addressing underlying factors like trauma history. However, research on treatment effectiveness remains limited, and most people with subclinical sadistic traits never seek treatment because they don’t experience personal distress from their behavior. The distress falls on those around them instead.