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Envy and admiration: emotion and motivation following upward social comparison
Cognition and Emotion
Abstract
Two key emotions people can experience when someone else is better than them are envy and admiration. There are conflicting findings in the scientific literature on which behaviour is elicited by these emotions. In one study (with two samples, total N = 345), we test which motivations are triggered by envy and admiration. The main finding is that (benign) envy and admiration both lead to a motivation to improve oneself. This confirms earlier findings that admiration leads to a motivation to affiliate with the admired other and a motivation to improve one's own position. Furthermore, it supports the idea that envy can lead to both a motivation to improve oneself and a motivation to pull down the envied other, finding support for a subtypes theory of envy.
... Positive and negative emotions. Social comparison frequently triggers emotional reactions (Boecker et al., 2022;van de Ven, 2017). Specifically, upward comparison usually evokes negative emotions such as envy and a sense of threat (Boecker et al., 2022;Dunn et al., 2012;Moran & Schweitzer, 2008;van de Ven, 2017), while downward comparison typically elicits positive emotions like happyfor-ness (i.e., an emotion mixed with sympathy, joy, and gratitude) and self-admiration (Boecker et al., 2022;Smith, 2000;Visconti et al., 2013). ...
... Social comparison frequently triggers emotional reactions (Boecker et al., 2022;van de Ven, 2017). Specifically, upward comparison usually evokes negative emotions such as envy and a sense of threat (Boecker et al., 2022;Dunn et al., 2012;Moran & Schweitzer, 2008;van de Ven, 2017), while downward comparison typically elicits positive emotions like happyfor-ness (i.e., an emotion mixed with sympathy, joy, and gratitude) and self-admiration (Boecker et al., 2022;Smith, 2000;Visconti et al., 2013). Importantly, research indicated that emotions mediate the relationship between social comparison and cooperation in object-dependent contexts (Miao et al., 2021). ...
... In a real economic game, the "stronger" has the potential to provide more returns (i.e., greater social exchange value); thus, people are more willing to cooperate with them. While upward social comparison may lead to negative emotional experiences such as decreased self-evaluation and increased shame (van de Ven, 2017), and downward social comparison may lead to positive emotions such as improved self-evaluation and increased empathy (Boecker et al., 2022;Smith, 2000), these are insignificant relative to the likelihood of a realistic return. ...
Within an object‐interdependent context, we conducted three experiments to investigate the influence of social comparisons on cooperative behavior, as well as to assess the mediating and moderating effects of related variables. In Experiment 1 (n = 207), we examined whether social comparisons impact cooperative behavior toward a comparator in a dictator game task. Here, we specifically focused on the mediating effects of evaluation of others' competence, along with three other potential mediators: self‐competence evaluation, positive emotions, and negative emotions. Following the insights gained from Experiment 1, we proceeded to Experiments 2 (n = 279) and 3 (n = 298) to further explore whether social distance moderates the mediating effect of evaluation of others' competence. The results of all three experiments consistently indicated that upward (vs. non‐) comparison facilitated cooperative behavior, whereas downward (vs. non‐) comparison hindered it. Furthermore, our findings revealed that evaluation of others' competence served as a mediator between social comparison and cooperative behavior when the comparator (i.e., the cooperative partner) was perceived as being at a far‐distance, whereas the mediating effect of evaluation of others' competence disappeared when social distance was close. These results reveal the pivotal role of evaluating others' competence and social distance in social interactions from the perspective of social comparison, which provides insights into how to promote cooperative behavior.
... Social perception theory suggests that high competence and high warmth judgments lead to admiration and supportive behaviors, whereas high competence and low warmth judgments arouse envy and active harming behaviors (Cuddy et al., 2007;Cuddy et al., 2011). Given the status difference (higher for a mentor than for a protégé; Haggard et al., 2011), we posit that admiration-an emotion felt toward higher-status peoples (Sweetman, Spears, Livingstone, & Manstead, 2013;van de Ven, 2017)-is a less likely mentor reaction to protégés taking charge. Hence, we draw on envy subtypes theory (van de Ven, 2017)-a theoretical underpinning used to clarify reactions from higher-ups and peers (Carnevale, Huang, Vincent, Yu, & He, 2023;van de Ven, 2016)-to explain a mentor's affective reactions to a protégé taking charge. ...
... We therefore focus on mentor knowledge sharing, where mentors provide potential useful information to help protégés develop ideas and solve problems (Cummings, 2004;Hansen, Mors, & Lovas, 2005), and mentor knowledge hiding, where mentors intentionally withhold knowledge (Connelly & Kelloway, 2003;Connelly, Zweig, Webster, & Trougakos, 2012). In sum, drawing on social perception theory (Cuddy et al., 2007;Cuddy et al., 2011) and envy subtypes theory (van de Ven, 2016(van de Ven, , 2017, we develop a contingent dual-path model that differentiates a mentor's feelings of either benign or malicious envy in response to a protégé who takes charge at work; these feelings, in turn, encourage the mentor to either share or hide knowledge from the protégé, depending on how the protégé's benevolence is perceived by the mentor. Figure 1 depicts our model. ...
... Envy subtypes theory differentiates benign from malicious envy (van de Ven, 2016(van de Ven, , 2017. While both affective states arise from observing and evaluating others' superior quality, possession, or achievement-like competence-they have different features, are caused by different appraisals, and result in distinct actions (van de Ven, 2016). ...
In the mentoring relationship, protégé proactivity is a key facilitator of mentoring support. However, we consider how protégé proactivity at work may lower mentors’ inclination to share knowledge. Drawing on and extending social perception theory and envy subtypes theory, we build a contingent dual-path model to theorize that a proactive protégé who takes charge at work may elicit mentor knowledge sharing or hiding through mentor benign or malicious envy, depending on the protégé's benevolence. Specifically, mentors are more likely to feel benign envy toward taking-charge and benevolent protégés, enhancing their knowledge sharing. Taking-charge protégés seen as less benevolent may encourage malicious envy in the mentors, leading them to hide knowledge. Findings from a multi-source, two-wave survey of the data of 187 mentor–protégé dyads in China (Study 1) and a pre-registered scenario-based experiment of 404 participants in the United States (Study 2) support our predictions. This research advances our knowledge of mentoring, envy, and proactivity, and provides practical implications to enhance the effectiveness of mentorship programs.
... Certains auteurs vont même jusqu'à prétendre que la forme bénigne de l'envie n'est pas à l'origine de l'envie (Cohen-Charash et Mueller, 2007;Ray et Fiske, 2011) en attestant qu'elle s'apparente plus à de l'admiration qu'à de l'envie (Hareli et Weiner, 2002;Miceli et Castelfranchi, 2007;Smith et Kim, 2007). Des études ont été menées en ce sens dans le but d'identifier les différences entre l'envie et l'admiration (Castelfranchi et Miceli, 2009;Cohen-Charash et Larson, 2017;Cuddy et al., 2008;van de Ven, 2017). ...
... L'hostilité refléterait alors une certaine incompétence, et expliquerait pourquoi l'envie malveillante est souvent associée à une faible estime de soi (Navarro-Carrillo et al., 2017), ainsi qu'à un état dépressif (Crusius et Lange, 2016;Miceli et Castelfranchi, 2007;Smith et al., 1999). Finalement, bien que certains attestent que l'impression de ne pas pouvoir atteindre ce qui est envié est un facteur déterminant de l'admiration (van de Ven, 2017;van de Ven et al., 2009van de Ven et al., , 2011, d'autres trouvent que cette émotion exige de croire en sa capacité d'égaler la personne admirée (Miceli et Castelfranchi, 2007). ...
... Tous les auteurs s'entendent sur le fait que l'envie est ressentie lorsque l'envié possède des compétences personnellement valorisées par l'envieux (Castelfranchi et Miceli, 2009;Cohen-Charash et Larson, 2016;Crusius et Lange, 2016;Feather et Sherman, 2002;Parrott et Smith, 1993;Smith et Kim, 2007;van de Ven, 2017). C'est le degré de convoitise spécifique que véhicule l'envie qui soulève de la confusion avec de l'admiration. ...
L’être humain fait face au cours de sa vie à une multitude d’émotions, notamment la joie, la peine et la colère, qui sont ouvertement reconnues comme universelles, mais qu’en est-il de l’envie? Bien que l’envie soit présente dans toutes les cultures depuis le début de l’humanité, elle est stigmatisée, considérée comme moralement indésirable et souvent associée à des comportements socialement inacceptables. L'étude de l'envie en psychologie est encore un domaine relativement jeune avec peu d'études empiriques. Des instruments de mesure ont été construits afin de mesurer cette émotion; cependant, les auteurs ne s’entendent pas sur la structure complexe de l’envie. L’objectif de cet article est de parcourir les différentes conceptions de l’envie étayées dans la littérature et de proposer un cadre conceptuel pour d’éventuelles recherches sur le construit latent de l’envie, notamment en milieu de travail.
... Moreover, previous research has found that dispositional envy is related to neuroticism, mental health problems, and low life satisfaction (Rentzsch & Gross, 2015). At the same time, however, it has been shown that experiencing envy can motivate people to improve themselves (Lange & Crusius, 2015;Van de Ven, 2017). Taken together, these findings suggest that vaccine envy might have detrimental effects on personal well-being and social cohesion while simultaneously being associated with an increased motivation to get vaccinated. ...
... Third, we examined further correlates and life outcomes associated with vaccine envy. In line with research on benign forms of envy (Lange & Crusius, 2015;Van de Ven, 2017), we preregistered the hypothesis that the motivating effect of envy might express itself in an increased willingness to get vaccinated. Moreover, we exploratorily examined associations with life satisfaction and depressivity as well as personal experiences and attitudes related to the pandemic. ...
... However alarming vaccine envy might have appeared in the media, it is important to keep in mind that there might also be some positive side effects. In line with previous research on the motivational effect of envy (Lange & Crusius, 2015;Van de Ven, 2017), we found that vaccine envy was associated with an increased willingness to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Vaccine envy might thus be an expression of positive attitudes and hope associated with the vaccination campaign. ...
The term vaccine envy (i.e., envy experienced when others are given the opportunity to receive a COVID-19 vaccine) was coined during the COVID-19 pandemic and has received media attention. This study is the first to systematically investigate vaccine envy. In two pre-registered online surveys conducted in May 2021 (N = 1,174) and October/November 2021 (N = 535), we collected data from vaccinated and unvaccinated German participants, including measures of vaccine envy, well-being, personal experiences during the pandemic, and various trait constructs (e.g., justice sensitivity and self-esteem). We found that in May 2021, 47% of participants experienced vaccine envy at least sometimes and that vaccine envy was connected to victim sensitivity, subjective perceptions of being threatened by the pandemic, and an increased willingness to be vaccinated. By November 2021, however, vaccine envy among unvaccinated participants had almost disappeared. Our findings advance the understanding of the psychological impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
... Admiration is a happy emotion of approval for someone else's accomplishments. An inclusive view of how emotions could be felt with their antecedents and potential reflections (Van de Ven, 2017). To achieve the self-growth goal, adoration could lead to emulation of the idea provided by the role model (Schindler et al., 2013). ...
... Emulation appears to be an envy motivator. Furthermore, it was found that people are likely motivated by admiration rather than jealousy (Ven, 2017;Lin et al., 2018;Kao, 2019). ...
The Effect of Upward Social Comparison on Behavioral Intentions Towards Social Media Influencers in Egypt: The Mediating Role of Self-Esteem and Emotions
... In line with prior work on children's intrinsic motivation to see others helped and the emotion elicited (Aknin et al., 2012b;Hepach et al., 2019;Hepach et al., 2012Hepach et al., , 2017a, we expected the elevation condition to elicit a feeling of upliftment, warmth, and a desire to be caring (Haidt, 2000;Schnall et al., 2010) compared to the admiration condition. Secondly, in line with previous research on elevation and prosocial behavior (Cox, 2010;Freeman et al., 2009;Lai et al., 2014;Schnall et al., 2010;Thomson & Siegel, 2013, 2017, we expected that induced elevation, but not admiration, would lead to increased prosocial behavior in children. ...
... Additionally, previous research suggests that the relation between elevation and prosocial behavior is often moderated or mediated by other variables (Diessner et al., 2013; Observing prosociality and talent in 6.5-to 8.5-year-old children 35 Ellithorpe et al., 2015;Thomson & Siegel, 2013, 2017. For example, Schnall and Roper (2012) showed that only participants who engaged in a self-affirmation task (e.g., reminded themselves of previous prosocial behavior) engaged in increased prosocial behaviors after exposure to an elevation inducing stimulus. ...
Helping and seeing others being helped elicits positive emotions in young children but little is known about the nature of these emotions, especially in middle childhood. Here we examined the specific emotional characteristics and behavioral outcomes of two closely related other-praising moral emotions: elevation and admiration. We exposed 182 6.5- to 8.5-year-old children living in New Zealand, to an elevation- and admiration-inducing video clip. Afterwards children’s emotion experiences and prosocial behaviour was measured. Findings revealed higher levels of happiness, care, and warmth after seeing prosociality in others (elevation condition) and higher levels of upliftment after seeing talent in others (admiration condition). We found no differences in prosocial behavior between the elevation and admiration conditions. This is the first study to assess elevation in childhood and offers a novel paradigm to investigate the role of moral emotions as potential motivators underlying helping.
... Envy is a complex emotion arising from social comparisons and feelings of inferiority, is studied across multiple disciplines, and is associated with negative consequences such as animosity, resentment, and a desire to harm the envied individual ( Van de Ven, 2017). A thorough definition of envy is that it is an emotion that "occurs when a person lacks another's superior quality, achievement, or possession and either desires it or wishes that the other lacked it" (Parrott & Smith, 1993). ...
... Lange et al. (2018) distinguen dos tipos de envidia disposicional: maliciosa y benigna. Ambas comparten sentimientos de inferioridad y frustración, pero difieren en motivos y comportamientos (van de Ven, 2015). ...
... In addition, social comparisons play an important role in motivation, enabling individuals to regulate their behaviors in order to obtain rewards. [15][16][17] However, it has been found that the motivational functions can be reduced when rewards cannot provide information for behavioral regulations. 18,19 From this perspective, status-related comparisons may have a detrimental effect on motivation, as they do not provide any valid information that can be used to regulate current behavior. ...
Background
Although social status is closely related to income distribution, few studies have focused on social comparisons caused by income distribution based on social status.
Purpose
The neural indices of status-related social comparisons were investigated by modifying the classical social comparison task with the incorporation of event-related potentials (ERPs).
Methods
The study employed a total of 29 subjects (15 females), the status scores of whom were initially obtained through the utilization of classical measurements of objective (7 items) and subjective (2 items) socioeconomic status. Subsequently, the subjects were required to complete a dot-estimation task. To induce status-related and response-related (upward, equal, and downward) social comparisons, subjects were informed that rewards were distributed based on whether their status score or their response was superior to that of a selected competitor.
Results
The behavioral results demonstrated that status-related social comparisons were perceived as more unfair than response-related social comparisons. The ERP results indicated that the cue-P3 amplitude was lower under status-related cues than response-related cues. Additionally, the amplitude of feedback-related negativity was larger under status-related equal comparisons than response-related equal comparisons. Furthermore, the P3 amplitude was larger under status-related upward comparisons relative to response-related upward comparisons.
Conclusion
The findings indicated that status-related comparisons may contribute to the development of unfair consideration (enhanced FRN) and a reduction in task motivations (lowered cue-P3). Additionally, the status-related upward comparison may serve as a significant factor in the onset of relative deprivation (enhanced P3). It would therefore be beneficial to gain further insight into the neural basis of social comparisons.
... Some people are more prone to envy than others, marking stable individual differences in a person's disposition toward envy Rentzsch & Gross, 2015;Smith et al., 1999). Although envy can result in a vast range of negative outcomes, including antisocial behavior (Behler et al., 2020), hostility , and social undermining (Duffy et al., 2012), envy has also been shown to have positive effects, such as motivating people to improve themselves or increasing their performance (see Lange & Crusius, 2015;Van de Ven, 2017). Self-esteem, on the other hand, can be defined as the positivity of a person's self-evaluation (Baumeister, 1998;Coopersmith, 1967;Rosenberg, 1965). ...
... Lange, 2014;Van de Ven et al., 2009). According to Van de Ven (2017), these thoughts can propel employees toward engaging in interpersonal deviant behaviors, such as instigating incivility, with the intent of harming their superiors. ...
Upward comparisons, a psychological process in which individuals compare themselves to perceived superiors, have gained prominence in the workplace. Nevertheless, their impact on employees’ sequent behaviors has yielded inconsistent results. To address these discrepancies, this study draws upon social comparison theory to investigate the conditions under which workplace upward comparisons exert a double-edged sword effect on employees’ subsequent behavior. Through a multi-wave, multi-source survey involving 282 employees and 65 leaders from 65 teams, our findings reveal that when employees perceive overall justice as high, workplace upward comparisons tend to evoke benign envy, leading to constructive self-improvement behaviors. However, when employees perceive overall justice as low, workplace upward comparisons are more likely to trigger malicious envy, resulting in instigated incivility. Our study advances a thorough understanding of when and how workplace upward comparisons may lead to disparate behavioral responses by eliciting two distinct forms of envy. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.
... For elementary school students, they judge their academic achievements by comparing themselves with better-performing peers (i.e., upward comparison) (Chung & Mallery, 1999). However, frequent upward comparisons inevitably trigger envy (Van De Ven, 2015). Influenced by exam-oriented education and social pressure, Chinese children's social comparisons and resulting envy are usually more serious (Dong, 2023;Molloy et al., 2010). ...
Previous studies have examined the impact of maternal childhood maltreatment (CM) on children’s school adaptation (SA), neglecting the role of fathers, and the joint influence of both parents. Based on family systems theory, this study explored the intergenerational impact of parental CM on children’s SA and the mediating role of benign envy (BE) and malicious envy (ME). A total of 334 elementary school students’ BE, ME, and SA statuses and their parents’ CM, BE, and ME statuses were collected to construct the intergenerational transmission models of BE and ME for fathers, mothers, and parents, respectively. The results revealed that maltreated fathers or mothers individually exerted negative impacts on their children’s SA, but when parents acted jointly, only fathers’ CM intergenerational influence was significant. Mediation effects demonstrated that, individually, maltreated fathers indirectly affected children’s SA through children’s BE; maltreated mothers impacted children’s SA through the “mothers’ BE→children’s BE” mediating chain; however, when taking combined parental action, only mothers’ intergenerational transmission chain was significantly present. Identifying different intergenerational influence mechanisms of maltreated parents on offspring’s school adaptation broadens our understanding of the diverse parenting roles of parents. That is, fathers foster their offspring’s environmental adaptability through encouraging external exploration, while mothers enhance socialization by nurturing internal emotional development. Formulating strategies to address the emotional issues of maltreated parents, especially mothers, is crucial for mitigating the intergenerational consequences of maltreatment and enhancing the offspring’s adaptability.
... The role of social comparison is consistently controversial (Taylor and Lobel, 1989). Upward social comparison can set a direction and example for individuals to move forward (Gürel et al., 2020), but also has the potential to trigger jealousy and anxiety in individuals ( Van de Ven, 2017). Downward social comparison can alleviate individuals' anxiety (Wills, 1981), but it tends to trigger a mapping effect that may lead individuals to give up their efforts (Smith, 2000). ...
Introduction
While adversity can bring great challenges to individuals' life and work, many people also find ways to make positive changes and adapt to these difficult circumstances. Individuals tend to make social comparisons more frequently and intensely when faced with adversity or high stress. The study attempts to examine the influence mechanism of downward social comparison on individual adversarial growth.
Methods
By collecting data from 353 Chinese who have experienced adversities in the past 3 years, the study validates the dual mediating model of gratitude and self-acceptance and explores the moderating effect of interpersonal sensitivity.
Results
The findings indicate that: downward social comparison can increase the occurrence of adversarial growth by enhancing individuals' self-acceptance and gratitude. Compared to individuals with low interpersonal sensitivity, individuals with high interpersonal sensitivity are more likely to facilitate the occurrence of adversarial growth through self-acceptance and gratitude due to downward social comparison.
Discussion
In the face of adversity, individuals can regain self-confidence and respond positively by comparing themselves to people in worse situations than themselves. In particular, individuals with higher interpersonal sensitivity are more likely to benefit from downward social comparisons and grow from adversity.
... In both deserved and undeserved situations, children reported more benign envy than malicious envy, which was consistent with previous findings (e.g., Gaviria et al., 2021;Van de Ven, 2017). This suggested that, in general, children are more willing to make efforts to catch up with the envied person than use disruptive behavior to render envied people lose their advantages. ...
This study aimed to investigate the effects of the deservingness of envious objects on benign and malicious envy as well as the interaction effect of deservingness and envious type on cooperation in a public goods game (PGG). Participants included 458 children (Mage = 11.31 years, 50% girls) from four public schools in Shanghai, China. Children cooperated with the envied person in deserved and undeserved conditions and then reported their levels of benign and malicious envy. Results showed that undeserved objects triggered more intense benign and malicious envy in children. However, deservingness triggered different types of envious behavioral responses. Younger girls who reported more benign envy were more likely to cooperate in the deserved situation, whereas younger girls and boys who reported more malicious envy were less likely to cooperate in the undeserved situation. The findings highlighted the complex interplay between envy type and children’s age and gender in predicting their cooperation in deserved and undeserved situations.
... On the other hand, as malicious envy arises from the belief that the envied individual has managed to attain success through unfair means or simply good luck, envious individuals are not motivated to work harder to get on par with the envied individual. Instead, feelings of hostility, resentment and animosity toward the envied individual are often felt (Marticotte & Arcand, 2017;van de Ven, 2017). These feelings are often a form of self-preservation against the envied individual (Loureiro et al., 2020;Sharma et al., 2021) and the resultant malevolence towards the envied individual has led past scholars to label malicious envy as a harmful form of envy (van de Ven, 2009). ...
The literature on ethics currently recommends more research on the emotional underpinnings of ethical decision-making. The current study takes up the challenge, addressing this research gap by theorising and empirically testing, through four studies (with different methodologies, e.g., survey design, lab experiment), the link between envy—malicious versus benign—and beliefs in unethical consumer behaviour as moderated by religiosity. We show that while malicious envy enhances different types of unethical consumer beliefs, this effect is dampened by the presence versus absence of religiosity (when religiosity was both measured and manipulated through thoughts of God priming). We also show that moral awareness mediates this effect. The findings contribute to theory and practice.
... The theory suggests that individuals have an inherent nature of comparing themselves with their peers who are either performers (upward social comparison) or underperformers (downward social comparison) and accordingly shape their response strategies. Even though the theory posits that upward social comparison motivates people to improve themselves, studies show that it can also hurt self-evaluation, leading to negative emotions, such as envy and jealousy, especially when people pay attention to the comparative advantages others have (Smith and Kim, 2007;Van de Ven, 2017). ...
Purpose
Ostracism is a common challenge in the workplace, but little is known about the behaviours of those who trigger it. The authors examined how leader favouritism can drive coworkers to ostracise one another, given that leadership is a key factor in shaping employee attitudes and behaviour. Invoking social comparison theory, the authors assessed a model of how perceived favouritism affects ostracism through jealousy, moderated by organisation-based self-esteem (OBSE).
Design/methodology/approach
The authors surveyed 294 non-managerial employees from several service organisations in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and analysed the data with partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) using SmartPLS 3 software.
Findings
Unexpectedly, leader favouritism did not directly affect ostracism but only indirectly through the mediation of jealousy. OBSE was found to moderate this relationship, suggesting that higher levels of OBSE can weaken the impact of leader favouritism on employee jealousy.
Originality/value
These findings explain the intricate dynamics and underlying reasons as to how leader favouritism can instigate employee-to-employee ostracism.
... The presence of the emotions of colleagues through the EAT may inform learners about what others are experiencing during the remote learning periods, providing information to build and update a mental model of the causes of and consequences on their behavior (e.g., Dillenbourg et al., 2016;Van Kleef, 2010Van Kleef et al., 2017) 6. Self-Other Comparison. Comparing one's own emotions with that of the colleagues can provide useful information, especially in situation of incertitude (e.g., Eligio et al., 2012;van de Ven, 2017). The presence of the EAT may facilitate and prompt this comparison. ...
In computer-mediated learning environments, especially in remote conditions, learners often lack the socio-affective cues that are usually available in face-to-face interactions. Socio-affective phenomena are known to play a prominent role at various levels of learning processes and outcomes, spanning high-order cognitive functions, motivation, sense of belonging, and quality of interaction with colleagues. Emotions, in particular, are nowadays considered dynamic and multifaceted phenomena that serve a wide range of adaptive functions. As a result, an interdisciplinary interest has recently emerged on ways by which computer-mediated learning environments may be endowed with emotional awareness, that is, information about one’s own emotions and/or the emotions of colleagues, which is instrumental to the learning task at hand. Emotion Awareness Tools are one such attempt to bestow learners with the possibility to produce and peruse emotional awareness through a dedicated interface that coexists with the overall learning environment. The thesis provides the details of the implementation and empirical assessment of an Emotion Awareness Tool with the following main characteristics. First, it is based on voluntary self-report of emotion. Second, it implements a computational structure of emotion rooted in appraisal theories of emotion, for which emotion elicitation and differentiation is a dynamic and ongoing process driven by a cognitive evaluation of the situation. Third, learners can produce and peruse emotional awareness through the tool on a moment-to-moment basis. Adopting an iterative design process, the implementation and assessment of the tool are guided by evidence gathered through empirical contributions aimed at investigating which factors – intrinsic to the tool, deriving from the interaction between learners and the tool, between learners themselves, as well as between learners and the instructional design – determine whether and how emotional awareness may be
beneficial in computer-mediated learning environments. The main outcomes of the
thesis are a toolbox that allows researchers and practitioners to configure an instance of the tool according to their own scientific or instructional goals, a structural causal
model of the influence of emotional awareness on learning in computer-mediated
environments, and methodological techniques or instruments that may be applied in
similar contexts.
... 12 Specifically, positive admiration helps inspire people for productivity (motivation) and also serves to exemplify which achievements are realistic (emulation). 13 An awareness of scientific insights might lessen some misunderstandings in collegial care arising from envy when practising medicine ( Figure 1). 14 ...
... Kıskananlar ve hedefleri açısından olumsuz sonuçlar doğurduğu (Lee & Duffy, 2019: 1087 iş yeri stresi gibi bir dizi olumsuz ve maliyetli durumlara neden olduğu ileri sürülmektedir (Hilal, 2022). Van de Ven (2017) kıskançlığı iyi huylu ve kötü huylu kıskançlık olarak sınıflandırmıştır. Her iki türde de kıskançlık hayal kırıklığına neden olur, zira kıskançlık bir dereceye kadar karşılaştırmalı aşağılık duygusunu içerir (Lee, Song, & Ryan, 2022). ...
The aim of this study is to determine the relationship between workplace envy and turnover intenion and to reveal the mediating role of felt stress and workplace incivility in this relationship. The model is based on the affective events theory. In the literature, it was seen that the relationship between workplace envy and turnover intention was discussed, but the mediating role of workplace incivility and felt stress was not mentioned in this relationship. For this purpose, three public institutions in Ankara were determined as the main population. Data were collected from a sample of 428 employees determined by random sampling method from these public institutions, by means of a survey technique. The hypotheses of the research were tested using the Structural Equation Modeling. The results of the analysis show that workplace envy, which is the independent variable, positively predicts the felt stress, workplace incivility and turnover intention. Felt stress and workplace incivility also predicted turnover intention in a positive and significant way. It was observed that the effect of felt stress on turnover intention was higher than the effect of workplace incivility on turnover intention. In the research, it was concluded that the felt stress and workplace incivility in the relationship between workplace envy and turnover have full mediation effect.
... Comparing the technostress item score, the participants' professional jealousy became the most contributing technostress factor, with a score of 4.67. Some studies said professional jealousy could increase participants' motivation (Chung & Harris, 2018;Ven, 2022). However, the higher the jealousy, which triggers negative acts, i.e., being mad, insulting, or even aiming to make colleagues to be fired from the job, can influence the productivity of an institution. ...
This study aimed to scrutinize the correlation between English as a foreign language (EFL) lecturers’ digital literacy competence (DLC) based on the TPACK-SAMR framework and their technostress. In addition, this study revealed how the variables correlated to the lecturers’ EFL teaching performances. Therefore, a correlational design with a descriptive explanation model was conducted. The participants were six EFL lecturers from six different universities in various cities in East Java Province, Indonesia. The data were collected by administering TPACK-SAMR DLC and technostress questionnaires, conducting a semi-structured interview, and documenting the teaching scenarios. The results showed that most participants were more confident with their pedagogical knowledge and content knowledge. They claimed it was hard to mingle them into harmonious teaching performances with technology that challenged them to achieve the higher TPACK-SAMR DLC level. Relevant to this finding, their DLC had a negative ‘very high’ correlation with technostress, shown by -.824 Pearson correlation coefficient. Henceforth, their EFL teaching performances reflected the minimum operation of technology, according to SAMR stages, to mediate EFL teaching by substituting and augmenting the technology. Therefore, this study highlights the importance of DLC training to escalate the positive outcomes of EFL teaching with technology and minimize technostress.
... Envy is such an emotion, evoked via upward social comparison, and traditionally associated with hostility, resentment and harmful behaviours (Miceli & Castelfranchi, 2007;Smith & Kim, 2007). However, envy can also lead to constructive outcomes, such as motivation to improve (Van de Ven, 2017), increased performance (Schaubroeck & Lam, 2004), and the regulation social hierarchies (Lange & Protasi, 2021). Envy relies on a specific brain network, involving (a) the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and the anterior insula (Luo et al., 2018;Takahashi et al., 2009)-engaged in the processing of social pain and the affective component of physical pain (Eisenberger, 2011(Eisenberger, , 2012)-and (b) prefrontal and posterior regions (McDonald et al., 2020;Santamaría-García et al., 2017) associated with mentalizing (Schurz et al., 2014). ...
Social emotions are critical to successfully navigate in a complex social world because they promote self-regulation of behavior. Difficulties in social behavior are at the core of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, social emotions and their neural correlates have been scarcely investigated in this population. In particular, the experience of envy has not been addressed in ASD despite involving neurocognitive processes crucially compromised in this condition. Here, we used an fMRI adapted version of a well-validated task to investigate the subjective experience of envy and its neural correlates in adults with ASD (n = 30) in comparison with neurotypical controls (n = 28). Results revealed that both groups reported similarly intense experience of envy in association with canonical activation in the anterior cingulate cortex and the anterior insula, among other regions. However, in participants with ASD, the experience of envy was accompanied by overactivation of the posterior insula, the postcentral gyrus, and the posterior superior temporal gyrus, regions subserving the processing of painful experiences and mentalizing. This pattern of results suggests that individuals with ASD may use compensatory strategies based on the embodied amplification of pain and additional mentalizing efforts to shape their subjective experience of envy. Results have relevant implications to better understand the heterogeneity of this condition and to develop new intervention targets.
Parents’ social comparison is a common phenomenon that occurs in China. It refers to the behavior of parents imagining other people’s children as an excellent role model without shortcomings and comparing their own children with them. This behavior may affect their child’s mood. The purpose of this study was to explore the impact of parents’ social comparison on adolescents’ self-esteem through the mediating role of upward social comparison, and to explore the moderating role of optimism in upward social comparison and self-esteem. Parents’ social comparison questionnaire, upward social comparison questionnaire, self-esteem questionnaire and life orientation questionnaire were distributed through online questionnaires, and 576 valid questionnaires were received. The results of the study found that upward social comparison plays a partial mediating role in the negative impact of parents’ social comparison on self-esteem, and optimism plays a moderating role in the impact of upward social comparison on self-esteem. This study illustrates the harmful effects of parents’ social comparison on adolescent mental health, but this harm can be mitigated through the teaching of optimism. This study shows that parents’ social comparison is not advisable, and attention should be paid to maintaining the optimistic attitude of teenagers to ensure their healthy growth.
Unorthodox marketing of luxury products and services has given rise to the concept of new luxury. Luxury firms are now focusing more on the middle class through 'masstige marketing,' a strategy that combines luxury and mass appeal, in order to tap into a lucrative commercial potential. The purpose of this strategy is to enhance the accessibility of luxury brands to a broader demographic, specifically targeting the demands and preferences of the middle class. This study aims to explore the influence of factors such as conspicuous value, benign envy, bandwagon motivation, and snob motivation on masstige purchase intention. By employing Smart PLS to analyse the research data, the results showed that while benign envy and bandwagon motivation significantly affect tourist masstige purchase behaviour, snob motivation and conspicuous value have no influence on masstige purchase intention. The contribution of this research to consumer decision-making in relation to hotel management literature and further research directions are also discussed.
Mothers are heavily engaged in social media, and mommy influencers have become key sources of information and targets for social comparison. This study investigates the psychological mechanisms by which mothers’ parental stress is affected by social comparison with mommy influencers. An online survey was conducted among South Korean millennial mothers ( N = 237). The results revealed that mothers who frequently compare themselves to mommy influencers may experience both positive and negative effects depending on the envy type. While social comparison was positively associated with both benign and malicious envy, the relationships between these two forms of envy and parenting efficacy differed. Benign envy was positively and malicious envy was negatively associated with enhanced parenting efficacy, respectively. Both envy and parenting efficacy serially mediated the relationship between mothers’ social comparison experiences with mommy influencers and parental stress. The implications of these findings are discussed along with suggestions for future research.
Amid the rise of AI-related research in the management field, existing research has predominately focused on the impacts of employees being exposed to AI and the AI symbolization behavior by leaders. However, no research has examined how employees react to AI symbolization from their coworkers. Drawing upon the appraisal theory of emotion, we explore employees’ emotional and behavioral reactions to coworker’s AI symbolization. This study involved a two-wave study with a two-week interval, conducted with 345 Chinese full-time employees, to validate the theoretical model. The results showed that coworker’s AI symbolization was positively related to employee admiration, which, in turn, promoted employee AI usage behavior. Furthermore, employee positive attitude towards AI moderated both the relationship between coworker’s AI symbolization and employee admiration and the indirect effect of coworker’s AI symbolization on employee AI usage behavior via admiration. This study contributes to the growing body of research on AI symbolization, providing a more comprehensive understanding of the phenomenon. Theoretical implications, practical implications, and future research directions are also discussed.
Drawing on hierometer theory with social comparison theory as an orienting framework, two field studies test the importance of follower grandiose narcissism in enabling the performance-enhancing potential of Leader-Member Exchange (LMX). Latent change regression analysis of follower performance appraisal scores over one year in Study 1 (international logistics organization) revealed improvements in performance only for followers who perceived higher LMX quality than others and also either (a) perceived their leader to hold high status in their organization (N = 198) or (b) themselves exhibited high grandiose narcissism (N = 147). Followers’ perception of leader status did not moderate the impact of follower grandiose narcissism on the LMX-performance improvement relationship. Latent change regression analysis of performance appraisal scores over one year in Study 2 (N = 282, large public university) replicated the performance improvement associated with perceived LMX quality only among followers expressing higher grandiose narcissism but found it contingent upon feelings of being already envied by others in the follower’s work environment. The results support the interpretation of LMX as a form of self-enhancing status fulfillment for followers, which motivates performance reciprocity. We discuss the fitness of hierometer theory in understanding the LMX-performance relationship as compared to the more commonly applied sociometer theory, as well as the broader implications of these findings for LMX theory.
Because social networking sites (SNS) facilitate social comparison, consumer envy becomes inevitable among social media users. Drawing on social comparison and coping theories, this study examines how different types of envy lead to consumers’ distinct behaviors on SNS, some of which are self-directed and focus on self-enhancement, and others are either positive or negative interactions with the envied person. Employing both the contexts of luxury product and service sharing experiences on Instagram, our four studies consistently found that while consumers who experience benign envy are more likely to interact with the envied positively, such as liking the envied’ posts, those who experience malicious envy are more likely to engage in negative interactions, such as unfollowing the envied person. Benign enviers are more likely to engage in self-enhancement SNS actions, such as posting images/videos more frequently, than malicious enviers. When coping with the negative feeling of envy, positive interactions help benign enviers improve their sense of belonging. In contrast, malicious enviers tend to engage in maladaptive coping behaviors, such as engaging in negative interactions with the envied, which may diminish their sense of belonging and lead to negative self-perceptions.
This study explores how the scarcity of virtual products in virtual gaming spaces influences brand evaluation in the real world. While previous studies suggest that scarcity in virtual spaces can enhance brand value, the mechanisms and conditions under which this effect occurs (e.g., the characteristics of virtual spaces, consumer traits, and stimulus). Drawing on insights from scarcity research on physical products, we propose that the effects of scarcity may stem from the expectation of impression management. We developed a model that incorporates insights from physical product scarcity research with the unique aspects of virtual spaces and consumer characteristics. Through four studies, we discovered that the effect of supply scarcity in enhancing brand evaluation is pronounced when the space is online and when consumers have a high level of social presence. Furthermore, in cases where social presence is not high, encounters with others wearing scarce products were found to enhance the scarcity effect. Companies can enhance brand evaluation by strategically using virtual product scarcity in online gaming, particularly when targeting consumers with high social presence or creating opportunities for players to interact with others wearing scarce items.
Using a prototype approach to emotion concepts, we mapped the internal structure and content of the everyday concept of envy (as used in the United States) and its translation equivalents of envidia in Spanish and Neid in German. In Study 1 (total N = 415), the features of the concept of envy , e nvidia , and Neid were generated via an open‐ended questionnaire. In Study 2 (total N = 404), participants rated the degree of typicality of the constitutive features on a forced‐choice questionnaire. The prototype analysis of envy, supplemented with network analyses, revealed that the largest connected set of features of envy , envidia , and Neid shared a group of central features, including features related to success or to people with a better appearance. Still, envy , envidia , and Neid did differ with respect to their constituent peripheral features as well as the density of their networks, their structure, and the betweenness centrality of the nodes. These results suggest that a prototype approach combined with network analysis is a convenient approach for studying the internal structure of everyday emotion concepts and the degree of overlap with respect to the translation equivalents in different countries.
Purpose
Expressions of pride may elicit others’ envy. In the consumer context, prior research has repeatedly demonstrated that such envy significantly affects consumers’ attitudinal and behavioural responses towards the object of envy. This paper aims to investigate whether this pride-envy relationship is bi-directional. Does being envied by others affect consumers’ self-directed feelings of pride, as well as their subsequent attitude towards a product (i.e. the object of envy)?
Design/methodology/approach
Three experiments examined how emotional reactions of envy from others may influence consumers’ subsequent affective and attitudinal responses towards their own product or purchase. The first experimental study ( n = 129) examined whether exposure to benign envy from others evokes higher levels of authentic pride and positively influences product attitude. The second experiment ( n = 159) investigated whether exposure to malicious envy from others evokes high levels of hubristic pride, and therefore, negatively influences product attitude. The third study ( n = 80) was a quasi-field experiment seeking to provide further empirical support for the relationship between benign (vs malicious) envy and authentic (vs hubristic) pride and their effects on attitude.
Findings
The first experiment showed that when participants observed expressions of benign envy towards them, they expressed authentic pride, which ultimately increased positive attitudes towards the product. The second experiment showed that when participants observed expressions of malicious envy towards them, they expressed hubristic pride, which, in turn, reduced positive attitudes towards the product. The effect of malicious envy was further moderated by susceptibility to social influence, whereby the indirect effect of malicious envy on product attitudes was only significant among participants with high susceptibility. The third experiment demonstrated the relationship between benign (vs malicious) envy and authentic (vs hubristic) pride and the effects on attitude in a quasi-field study.
Research limitations/implications
The present paper aims to fill a research gap by showing how being the recipient of others’ malicious or benign envy affects consumers’ self-directed feelings of pride, as well as their attitude towards a product that is the object of envy.
Practical implications
The current research is among the first to show that the emotional expressions of other consumers can influence existing consumers’ affective responses and attitudes towards a product. These findings highlight the importance of building a positive culture and community around brands and products, whereby other consumers’ consumption of the brand or product is perceived positively.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first empirical evidence demonstrating that others’ expression of benign (malicious) envy may lead to the self-feeling of authentic (hubristic) pride, which has a downstream effect on attitude towards the product.
Bu çalışma hizmet ortamında karşılaşılan adaletsizliklerin müşterilerin tekrardan ziyaret etme niyetleri üzerindeki etkisini ve bu süreçte gluckschmerz (yani başkalarının yaşadığı talihli durumdan duyulan rahatsızlık) ve kıskançlık duygularının rolünü incelemektedir. Aynı zamanda sosyal kimlik teorisinden hareketle grup kimliğinin bu süreçteki düzenleyici rolü de incelenmiştir. 2 (yüksek adaletsizlik ve düşük adaletsizlik) x 2 (iç-grup ve dış-grup) denekler-arası deneysel serim kullanılan ve 331 kişinin senaryolara rassal olarak atandığı bu araştırmada, hizmet adaletsizliği ve adaletsizlikten avantaj elde eden kişilerin grup kimlikleri manipüle edilmiştir. Analiz sürecinde düzenleyicilik, aracılık ve düzenleyici aracılık analizleri ile geliştirilen hipotezler test edilmiştir. Elde edilen bulgulara göre hizmet adaletsizliği ile karşılaşan tüketicilerde kıskançlık ve gluckschmerz duyguları ortaya çıkmakta ve müşterilerin hizmet ortamını tekrar ziyaret etme niyetleri zayıflamaktadır. Bununla birlikte bu etki, adaletsizlikten avantaj elde eden diğer müşterinin, asıl müşteri ile bir bağının olmadığı durumlarda (dış-grup) kıskançlık üzerinden gözlemlenirken, kişinin kendi grubundan tüketicilerin avantaj elde etmesi durumunda kıskançlık duygusu ortaya çıkmamaktadır. Beklenenin aksine, hizmet adaletsizliğinin gluckschmerz duygusu üzerindeki etkisinde ise grup kimliğinin herhangi bir düzenleyici rolünün olmadığı görülmüştür. Son olarak, bu çalışma, hizmet ortamında tanık olunan çeşitli durumlarda hizmet adaletsizliğinin hizmet işletmelerine yönelik niyetleri hangi duygular aracılığı ile ve hangi koşullar altında etkilediğini göstererek, yöneticilere alabilecekleri önlemler ve bu duygusal sürecin yönetimi ile ilgili önerilerde bulunmuştur.
A new theory of emulation – the method by which one learns from moral role models – is emerging through the combined efforts of philosophers, psychologists and educationists. Using a previous argument reconceptualising emulation as a moral virtue as a philosophical springboard, in this paper, I extend this theory by building a more robust case for how emulation qua role modelling works in practice through direct appeal to Aristotle’s account of causation: the four causes. Historically revered for their explanatory power, I argue that reconstructing the four causes and synthesising them with emulation enables us to better comprehend it as a quadripartite causal process. Through doing so, I propose that emulation is driven by ‘entangled phronesis’ – a mechanism which enables immature moral learners to acquire virtue by sharing in the phronesis, that is, practical wisdom, of a role model. Since the degree of entanglement depends upon a learner’s phase of virtuous character development, I also divide emulation into two types: pre-phronetic ‘habituated emulation’ and phronetically-informed ‘complete emulation’. Combined with my four-causal account of emulation, these concepts represent a novel contribution to neo-Aristotelian character developmental theory and help explain – step-by-step – the method by which one potentially acquires moral virtue and phronesis from moral role models.
Although tourism researchers have begun to explore the behavioral effects of envy, there has been limited empirical research on the effects of benign and malicious envies on conspicuous consumption intention in tourism. Based on the integration of cognitive appraisal theory, compensation theory, and self-control resource theory, using two scenario-based questionnaires, this paper applies structural relational and mediation analyses to explore the effects of benign and malicious envies on conspicuous travel consumption intention. The results indicate that benign envy can directly positively influence conspicuous consumption intention, and also can indirectly rely on self-enhancement motivation positively, thereby influencing conspicuous consumption intention. However, malicious envy cannot directly influence conspicuous consumption intention. This envy needs to rely on self-enhancement motivation to have an indirect negative influence and rely on weakened self-control to have an indirect but positive influence. The important theoretical and practical implications of these findings are then discussed.
Self-construal (SC) describes how people perceive the relationship between themselves and others and is usually divided into interdependent and independent types. Several studies have been conducted on how people with independent and interdependent SC process their own and others' outcomes. However, few studies have investigated the influence of SC on outcome evaluation in a social comparison context. To explore this, we randomly assigned participants to interdependent and independent SC priming groups and analyzed the affects and electrophysiological responses generated when they played gambling games with two pseudo-players. The results showed that self-gambling state, SC, and social comparison interacted to influence feedback-related negativity (FRN). In the self-win condition, performances that differed from others elicited more negative FRN than evenness for both the interdependent and independent groups. In the self-loss condition, this effect was only found in the independent group. These results suggest that the outcome evaluation patterns in social contexts are not fixed but vary according to self-gambling state and SC.
This paper extends prior research into the role of social comparison in service recovery by investigating the role of both downward and upward social comparison. Social comparison theory and attribution theory are applied to explore the differences in how upward and downward inter-customer comparison affects post-recovery satisfaction and word-of-mouth intentions. The mediating role of distributive justice perceptions and the moderating effects of the attribution of inter-customer differences in service recovery and customers' justice sensitivity are also examined. Two online scenario-based experimental studies show that downward social comparison leads to greater satisfaction and lower negative word-of-mouth intentions. In addition, distributive justice mediates the relationship. Finally, attribution of difference in inter-customer influence and individual-level justice sensitivity moderate these effects. Besides its conceptual contributions, the findings from this paper may help managers design more effective service recovery strategies.
This study aims at analyzing the influence of workplace envy on turnover intention mediated by negative emotion and perception of injustice in State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs/BUMN) bank employees in West Sulawesi Province. The technique used is proportional sample with the help of the application of SEM (Structural Equation Modeling) and SPSS on the Sobel Test which is operated through the AMOS program. The results revealed that workplace envy has a positive influence on turnover intention, workplace envy has a positive influence on negative emotion, and workplace envy has a positive influence on perception of injustice, negative emotion has a positive influence on turnover intention, perception of injustice has positive influence on turnover intention. Negative emotion mediates the influence of workplace envy on turnover intention and perception of injustice mediates the influence of workplace envy on turnover intention. This study only focuses on the antecedent variables of the turnover intention, namely workplace envy, negative emotion, and perception of injustice, while it is known that there are many factors that can influence turnover intention. Regarding the factors that influence the turnover intention, this study only focuses on the antecedent variables of the turnover intention, namely workplace envy, negative emotion, and perception of injustice, while it is known that there are many other factors that can influence turnover intention. For future research, research related to the variables of workplace envy, negative emotion, perception of injustice, and turnover intention can be carried out more comprehensively and in depth, by adding several other antecedent variables. © 2023, SRAC - Romanian Society for Quality. All rights reserved.
Envy and jealousy are rife within organisations. Envy and jealousy can manifest when resources are scarce and there is competition to achieve these. Envy and jealousy are also aimed at high flyers or attractive people within an organisation. Envy and jealousy have been studied from various perspectives but in this chapter, I look at these negative behaviours and how they can manifest in office gossip where gossipers try and malign the reputation of the target of gossip. A qualitative interpretivist approach is used to unpack the stories of marginalised, marginalised women in various workplaces. This study highlights the negative impact of envy and jealousy on the lives of nine marginalised Indian women from diverse sectors in corporate South Africa. The study follows a semi-structured interview approach where the participants unpack their workplace experiences and how they navigate their careers in environments that are riddled with envy and jealousy, mobbing, bullying and office gossip.
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to investigate the phenomenon of knowledge transfer between employees and coworkers. That is, when and why employees engage in knowledge seeking or knowledge sabotage when confronted with coworkers with higher relative overqualification.
Design/methodology/approach
This study collected survey data from 315 employee-coworker pairs in East China at three-time points.
Findings
The results showed that when the cooperative goal interdependence between employee and coworker is high, the perception of coworker’s relative overqualification will cause benign envy of employees, which in turn promote employees to engage in knowledge seeking from coworker. However, when the competitive goal interdependence between employee and coworker is high, the perception of coworker’s relative overqualification will cause malicious envy of employees, which in turn promote employees to engage in knowledge sabotage toward coworker.
Originality/value
This research not only expands the theoretical perspective and outcomes of relative overqualification but also enriches the mechanism of knowledge seeking and knowledge sabotage. Meanwhile, this study also provides practical guidance for enterprises to reduce knowledge sabotage.
This study explores the impact of micro-celebrity endorsements on brand attachment using the emotional connections of followers to the self-disclosure micro-celebrities on Instagram as mediator variables. The research involved target audiences who followed micro-celebrities on Instagram in Taiwan and employed quota sampling to distribute questionnaires on the social media platform. Four hundred eighteen valid samples were collected in the spring of 2022 and analyzed with structural equation modeling. The empirical results indicate that the main path was from homophily through relatedness need satisfaction to brand attachment (HOM→RNS→BA). Regarding relatedness need satisfaction as a mediator variable, homophily had a greater impact on brand attachment than benign envy. Moreover, this study is the first to expand the effects of emotional connection to brand attachment while showing that homophily and attractiveness positively impact brand attachment through benign envy and relatedness need satisfaction in micro-celebrity endorsements.
Altruism is a prosocial tendency that has developed through long-term evolutionary selection. The present study adopts social comparison and evolutionary psychology theories to examine how benign/malicious envy can affect altruism and how altruism can affect the two types of envy in turn, respectively. In Study 1, 513 adolescents participated in a three-wave longitudinal survey to explore the relationships between dispositional altruistic tendency and dispositional benign/malicious envy. The cross-lagged analysis showed a long-term and stable negative bidirectional relationship between dispositional altruistic tendency and dispositional malicious envy and a short-term positive bidirectional relationship between dispositional altruism and dispositional benign envy. In Study 2, 109 adolescents kept a weekly diary for seven consecutive weeks to record state levels of altruistic tendency and benign/malicious envy in their daily lives. The hierarchical linear model demonstrated that weekly altruistic tendency and weekly benign envy could positively predict each other, and weekly altruistic tendency presented a negative bidirectional relationship with weekly malicious envy. These findings offer an effective way to study the relationship between human behavior and emotions from perspectives of social comparison and evolutionary psychology theories. Meanwhile, it also has practical significance for the harmonious development of society.
Thesis. The aim of this paper is to present one of the outcomes of the Fight the Fright project. The project itself focuses on the development of adult competencies related to public speaking, self-confidence, combating fear of public speaking and interpersonal communication, using theatre techniques. It focuses on improving the competencies of adults and adult educators. Concept. Based on their knowledge and experience, the project partners have developed educational materials to support working-age people and strengthen their competencies. It is crucial to train educators so that they can pass on this knowledge to the next person. Results and conclusions. The project has developed two manuals. The first is a curriculum for developing public speaking in foreign languages. The second manual, below, was developed for adult educators to prepare them to deliver training related to overcoming the fear of public speaking in foreign languages. An online course on the above topics has also been developed. The project also envisages training adult educators, followed by further training for at least 15 participants by already trained educators.
While envy is a complex emotion to date, voluminous work has been done on the subject; however, no study has been conducted to resolve the debate on key envy-related concepts such as its definition, approaches and dimensions. Having its roots back in 1712, the explorations about envy have radically increased, especially in the twenty-first century, resulting in myriad theoretical and empirical developments. This paper takes this initiative by reviewing 76 systematically selected articles published in the services context in 41 journals to summarize the evolution of envy while addressing key research questions (what is envy, its nature, antecedents, and outcomes). Based on the review, this study tries to resolve the debate regarding two key elements of envy: its definition and approaches, i.e. unitary and dual. Following the unitary approach, we reported the most practical definition of envy and found that the view of self generates positive outcomes, and the view of others generates negative outcomes of envy.
The testimonies of celebrities affect the lives of their many followers who pay attention to what they say. This gives celebrities a high degree of epistemic power, which has come under scrutiny during the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper investigates the duties that arise from this power. We argue that celebrities have a negative duty of testimonial justice not to undermine trust in authoritative sources by spreading misinformation or directing attention to untrustworthy sources. Moreover, celebrities have a general imperfect duty to try to correct for an unjust distribution of attention by redirecting it to those who deserve it. During a pandemic this may become a perfect one, due to the harm that could be prevented if people follow the advice of experts. Relatedly, we argue that celebrities have an imperfect duty to promote behavior that will reduce the spread of a pandemic. We outline three ways they might do so: they might take on the position of a role model, they may act as a salience magnet or they can direct people’s attention towards others who have taken on these roles.
This article describes the nature and significance of the distinction between the emotions of envy and jealousy and reports 2 experiments that empirically investigated it. In Experiment 1, Ss recalled a personal experience of either envy or jealousy. In Experiment 2, Ss read 1 of a set of stories in which circumstances producing envy and jealousy were manipulated independently in a factorial design. Both experiments introduced new methodologies to enhance their sensitivity, and both revealed qualitative differences between the 2 emotions. Envy was characterized by feelings of inferiority, longing, resentment, and disapproval of the emotion. Jealousy was characterized by fear of loss, distrust, anxiety, and anger. The practical importance of this distinction, the reasons for its confusion, and general issues regarding the empirical differentiation of emotions are discussed.
In this article, the author describes a new theoretical perspective on positive emotions and situates this new perspective within the emerging field of positive psychology. The broaden-and-build theory posits that experiences of positive emotions broaden people's momentary thought-action repertoires, which in turn serves to build their enduring personal resources, ranging from physical and intellectual resources to social and psychological resources. Preliminary empirical evidence supporting the broaden-and-build theory is reviewed, and open empirical questions that remain to be tested are identified. The theory and findings suggest that the capacity to experience positive emotions may be a fundamental human strength central to the study of human flourishing.
Previous research has conceptualized dispositional envy as a unitary construct. Recently however, episodic envy has been shown to emerge in two qualitatively different forms. Benign envy is related to the motivation to move upward, whereas malicious envy is related to pulling superior others down. In four studies (N = 1,094)-using the newly developed Benign and Malicious Envy Scale (BeMaS)-we show that dispositional envy is also characterized by two independent dimensions related to distinct motivational dynamics and behavioral consequences. Dispositional benign and malicious envy uniquely predict envious responding following upward social comparisons. Furthermore, they are differentially connected to hope for success and fear of failure. Corresponding to these links, dispositional benign envy predicted faster race performance of marathon runners mediated via higher goal setting. In contrast, dispositional malicious envy predicted race goal disengagement. The findings highlight that disentangling the two sides of envy opens up numerous research avenues.
© 2014 by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc.
Previous research has yielded inconsistent findings concerning the relationship between envy and schadenfreude. Three studies examined whether the distinction between benign and malicious envy can resolve this inconsistency. We found that malicious envy is related to schadenfreude, while benign envy is not. This result held both in the Netherlands where benign and malicious envy are indicated by separate words (Study 1: Sample A, N = 139; Sample B, N = 150), and in the USA where a single word is used to denote both types (Study 2, N = 180; Study 3, N = 349). Moreover, the effect of malicious envy on schadenfreude was independent of other antecedents of schadenfreude (such as feelings of inferiority, disliking the target person, anger, and perceived deservedness). These findings improve our understanding of the antecedents of schadenfreude and help reconcile seemingly contradictory findings on the relationship between envy and schadenfreude.
We examined whether counterfactual thinking influences the experience of envy. Counterfactual thinking refers to comparing the situation as it is to what it could have been, and these thought processes have been shown to lead to a variety of emotions. We predicted that for envy the counterfactual thought "it could have been me" would be important. In four studies we found a clear link between such counterfactual thoughts and the intensity of envy. Furthermore, Studies 3 and 4 revealed that a manipulation known to affect the extent of counterfactual thinking (the perception of being close to obtaining the desired outcome oneself), had an effect on the intensity of envy via counterfactual thoughts. This relationship between counterfactual thinking and the experience of envy allows for new predictions concerning situations under which envy is likely be more intense.
Although envy has been characterized by resentment, hostility, and ill will, researchers have begun to investigate envy's benign manifestations. We contend that the substance of envy has been confounded with its consequences. We conceptualize envy as pain at another's good fortune. This reconceptualization allows envy to result in both positive and negative consequences. We then examine how envy affects interpersonal behaviors and job performance, contingent on core self-evaluation, referent cognitions, and perceived organizational support.
We investigated how early attention allocation is biased in envy. Recent research has shown that people experience envy in two distinct forms: malicious envy, which is associated with the motivation to harm the position of a superior other, and benign envy, which is associated with the motivation to improve oneself by moving upward. Based on a functional account of the two forms of envy, we predicted that within malicious envy the cognitive system is geared more strongly toward the other person than toward the superior fortune of the other. In contrast, only within benign envy the cognitive system should be geared toward opportunities to level oneself up. We investigated these hypotheses with dot probe tasks. In line with our reasoning, Experiments 1 (N = 84) and 2 (N = 78) demonstrate that within malicious envy, attention is biased more toward the envied person than toward the envy object, whereas in benign envy, this difference does not occur. Experiment 3 (N = 104) provides evidence that within benign envy, but not in malicious envy, attention is biased toward means to improve one’s own outcome. The results suggest that within benign and malicious envy, early cognitive processing is tuned toward different stimuli and thus highlight the utility of functional and process-oriented approaches to studying envy.
Episodic envy, the unpleasant emotion resulting from a specific negative social comparison, is discussed. A new measure designed to assess it is developed, validated, and cross-validated in 3 studies. The implications of episodic envy are also examined. Results show that episodic envy is composed of a feeling component and a comparison component; and is different from unfairness, admiration, and competition. The feeling component is strongly correlated with negative emotional reactions (anxiety, depression, negative mood, hostility) and behavioral reactions (e.g., harming the other, creating a negative work atmosphere) to envy. The comparison component is correlated with behaviors intended to improve one's position in the organization. Episodic envy predicts reactions to envy above and beyond dispositional envy.
This work provides an analysis of the basic cognitive components of envy. In particular, the roles played by the envious party's social comparison with, and ill will against, the better off are emphasised. The ill will component is characterised by the envier's ultimate goal or wish that the envied suffer some harm, and is distinguished from resentment and sense of injustice, which have often been considered part of envy. The reprehensible nature of envy is discussed, and traced back to the analysis of its components. Finally, we explore both points of overlap and distinguishing features between envy and other emotions such as jealousy or emulation, and make a few general remarks, pointing to the necessity of overcoming conceptual looseness in the notion of envy.
Envy is a frustrating emotion that arises from upward social comparison. Two studies investigated the appraisals that distinguish benign envy (aimed at improving one's own situation) from malicious envy (aimed at pulling down the superior other). Study 1 found that appraisals of deservingness and control potential differentiated both types of envy. We manipulated these appraisals in Study 2 and found that while both did not influence the intensity of envy, they did determine the type of envy that resulted. The more a situation was appraised as undeserved, the more participants experienced malicious envy. Benign envy was experienced more when the situation was not undeserved, and the most when the situation was appraised as both deserved and controllable. The current research also clarifies how the types of envy differ from the related emotions admiration and resentment.
Envy is the unpleasant emotion that can arise when people are exposed to others with superior possessions. Common wisdom and scholarly opinion suggest that when people experience envy they may be motivated to obtain the others' superior possession. Despite the vast interpersonal, societal, and economical consequences attributed to this potential aspect of envious responding, experimental demonstrations of the affective and behavioral consequences of envy-inducing situations are scarce. We propose that social comparisons with better-off others trigger an impulsive envious response that entails a behavioral tendency to strive for their superior good. However, given that the experience of envy is painful, self-threatening, and met with social disapproval, people typically attempt to control their envious reactions. Doing so requires self-control capacities, so that envious reactions may only become apparent if self-control is taxed. In line with these predictions, four experiments show that only when self-control resources are taxed, upward comparisons elicit envy paired with an increased willingness to pay for, to spontaneously purchase and to impulsively approach the superior good.
Four studies tested the hypothesis that the emotion of benign envy, but not the emotions of admiration or malicious envy, motivates people to improve themselves. Studies 1 to 3 found that only benign envy was related to the motivation to study more (Study 1) and to actual performance on the Remote Associates Task (which measures intelligence and creativity; Studies 2 and 3). Study 4 found that an upward social comparison triggered benign envy and subsequent better performance only when people thought self-improvement was attainable. When participants thought self-improvement was hard, an upward social comparison led to more admiration and no motivation to do better. Implications of these findings for theories of social emotions such as envy, social comparisons, and for understanding the influence of role models are discussed.
Envy is the painful emotion caused by the good fortune of others. This research empirically supports the distinction between two qualitatively different types of envy, namely benign and malicious envy. It reveals that the experience of benign envy leads to a moving-up motivation aimed at improving one's own position, whereas the experience of malicious envy leads to a pulling-down motivation aimed at damaging the position of the superior other. Study 1 used guided recall of the two envy types in a culture (the Netherlands) that has separate words for benign and malicious envy. Analyses of the experiential content of these emotions found the predicted differences. Study 2 and 3 used one sample from the United States and one from Spain, respectively, where a single word exists for both envy types. A latent class analysis based on the experiential content of envy confirmed the existence of separate experiences of benign and malicious envy in both these cultures as well. The authors discuss the implications of distinguishing the two envy types for theories of cooperation, group performance, and Schadenfreude.
This article describes the nature and significance of the distinction between the emotions of envy and jealousy and reports 2 experiments that empirically investigated it. In Experiment 1, Ss recalled a personal experience of either envy or jealousy. In Experiment 2, Ss read 1 of a set of stories in which circumstances producing envy and jealousy were manipulated independently in a factorial design. Both experiments introduced new methodologies to enhance their sensitivity, and both revealed qualitative differences between the 2 emotions. Envy was characterized by feelings of inferiority, longing, resentment, and disapproval of the emotion. Jealousy was characterized by fear of loss, distrust, anxiety, and anger. The practical importance of this distinction, the reasons for its confusion, and general issues regarding the empirical differentiation of emotions are discussed.
Previous research yielded conflicting results concerning the role of envy in predicting Schadenfreude (pleasure at another's misfortune). Some studies showed that envy predicts Schadenfreude, whereas others did not. Results of the present research reconcile these opposing findings, by showing that envy is a predictor of Schadenfreude when the target is similar to the observer in terms of gender. These results suggest that envy predicts Schadenfreude when people are confronted with the misfortune of a relevant social comparison other.
The authors reviewed the psychological research on envy. The authors examined definitional challenges associated with studying envy, such as the important distinction between envy proper (which contains hostile feelings) and benign envy (which is free of hostile feelings). The authors concluded that envy is reasonably defined as an unpleasant, often painful emotion characterized by feelings of inferiority, hostility, and resentment caused by an awareness of a desired attribute enjoyed by another person or group of persons. The authors examined questions such as why people envy, why envy contains hostile feelings, and why it has a tendency to transmute itself. Finally, the authors considered the role of envy in helping understand other research domains and discussed ways in which people cope with the emotion.
Søren Kierkegaard's The Sickness unto Death is widely recognized as one of the most significant and influential works of Christian philosophy written in the nineteenth century. One of the cornerstones of Kierkegaard's reputation as a writer and thinker, the book is also a masterclass in the art of interpretation. In critical thinking, interpretation is all about defining and clarifying terms - making sure that everyone is on the same page. But it can also be about redefining terms: showing old concepts in a new light by interpreting them in a certain way. This skill is at the heart of The Sickness unto Death. Kierkegaard's book focuses on the meaning of "despair" - the sickness named in the title. For Kierkegaard, the key problem of existence was an individual's relationship with God, and he defines true despair as equating to the idea of sin - something that separates people from God, or from the idea of a higher standard beyond ourselves. Kierkegaard's interpretative journey into the ideas of despair, sin and death is a Christian exploration of the place of the individual in the world. But its interpretative skills inspired generations of philosophers of all stripes - including notorious atheists like Jean-Paul Sartre.
In this article, the author describes a new theoretical perspective on positive emotions and situates this new perspective within the emerging field of positive psychology. The broaden-and-build theory posits that experiences of positive emotions broaden people's momentary thought-action repertoires, which in turn serves to build their enduring personal resources, ranging from physical and intellectual resources to social and psychological resources. Preliminary empirical evidence supporting the broaden-and-build theory is reviewed, and open empirical questions that remain to be tested are identified. The theory and findings suggest that the capacity to experience positive emotions may be a fundamental human strength central to the study of human flourishing.
We know that being around more successful others can threaten positive self-views and self-esteem. We also know that people are motivated to maintain high self-esteem. The present article outlines how threats to self-views, created by upward comparisons to more successful others, motivate and influence behavioral responses. In particular, it suggests that the degree to which subsequent performance situations provide an opportunity to repair threatened self-views determine whether responses are positive or negative. When performance tasks provide an opportunity to repair self-views, and repair seems likely, positive responses such as increased performance are likely to occur. When performance tasks do not provide an opportunity and repair seems unlikely, negative responses such as undermining others and withdrawing effort are likely to occur. Theoretical and practical implications, as well as future directions are discussed.
How is admiration different from adoration? We provided one answer to this question by examining the pathways through which admiration and adoration linked to self-expansion in a questionnaire and an experimental (autobiographical recall of emotion episodes) study. Both emotions were associated with increased potential efficacy to accomplish goals (i.e., self-expansion), but different action tendencies accounted for these links. While our emotion inductions did not successfully distinguish between admiration and adoration, we could statistically disentangle their effects through mediator models. In both studies, self-reported admiration linked to self-expansion through the tendency to emulate admired others. Adoration related to self-expansion through the tendency to affiliate with adored others. These findings were obtained after controlling for other emotions in response to the target person (awe, love, hope, benign envy) and mutuality of the relationship. Our findings also suggest that considering specific emotions (rather than undifferentiated positive affect) helps uncover different pathways to self-expansion.
In this article we outline the history, elements, and variations of functional accounts of emotions. Summarising diverse theories and observations, we propose that functional accounts of emotions: (1) address why humans have emotions; (2) de® ne emotions as solutions to problems and opportunities related to physical and social survival; (3) treat emotions as systems of interrelated components; and (4) focus on the bene® cial consequences of emotions. This conceptual approach to emotion is complemented by several empirical strategies, including the study of emotion dysfunction, the effects of emotions on others, and the relations between emotions and personal and social outcomes. We conclude by considering how functional accounts of emotion vary, including in terms of their level of analysis, speci® city, manner of organisation, and range of focus, and the implications functional accounts have for the study of emotion.
Admiration and adoration have been considered as emotions with the power to change people, yet our knowledge of the specific nature and function of these emotions is quite limited. From an interdisciplinary perspective, we present a prototype approach to admiration and what has variously been labelled adoration, worship, or reverence. Both admiration and adoration contribute to the formation of personal and collective ideals, values, and identities, but their workings differ. We offer a detailed theoretical account of commonalities and differences in the appraisal patterns and action tendencies associated with the two emotions. This analysis reveals that admiration motivates the internalisation and emulation of ideals embodied by an outstanding role model. Adoration motivates adherence to the teachings and expectations of a meaning maker and benefactor perceived as superhuman or sacred. Thus, the primary function of admiration is to promote individual learning and change, whereas adoration primarily serves to bind communities together.
Although traditional scholarly views suggest that envy and jealousy produce distinct affective experiences, empirical work is contradictory. The present study treated this problem from both semantic and experiential perspectives. First, subjects described situations in which they had felt strong envy and strong jealousy. These descriptions were coded for whether they conformed to traditional definitions of the two emotions. The results demonstrated that although the words envy and jealousy have overlapping meanings, the source of this overlap is the broad meaning of the word jealousy. Whereas the word jealousy may denote either jealousy (romantic jealousy, most commonly) or envy, the word envy will tend to be used in one sense alone, as a social-comparison-based emotion. In the second part of the study, subjects indicated for a series of affective states whether each was more characteristic of strong envy or strong jealousy. The results suggested that each emotion is associated with a differing profile of feelings. Reasons for the discrepancy between these results and previous empirical work are discussed.
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The counterfactual nature of envy
- N Van De Ven
- M Zeelenberg
Van de Ven, N., & Zeelenberg, M. (2015). The counterfactual
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