Study: Sadists feel sad after they're sadistic

Chester explained the paper “is the first to systematically and comprehensively establish the link between sadistic traits and aggressive behavior, both inside and outside the laboratory context.”

What’s more, it indicates this relationship is not caused by other traits like general aggressiveness, impulsivity, or poor self-control. In other words, sadists seem to be motivated by the pleasure they derive from inflicting pain alone.

“Our paper also examines the affective states, or feelings, that accompany such sadistic aggression—finding that sadists enjoy aggression during the act, but afterwards they feel worse than they started.” said Chester. “Our study also shows that sadists’ pleasure of aggression is contingent on their perception that their victim truly suffered because of their aggressive act.