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Drivers and Outcome of Destructive Envy behavior in an Economic Game Setting
Abstract
Although economic research acknowledges the powerful influence of envy, little is known about what drives destructive envy behavior. We address this gap by using evolutionary theory as a framework to better understand destructive envy behavior and to link it to psychological drivers. We use an experiment in which subjects participated in a lottery intended to evoke envy in the losers. Participants were subsequently offered the possibility of paying to reduce the other participant’s balance. The results make it possible for us to identify the most influential drivers of destructive envy behavior, and enable discussion of implications of such behavior for economics.
... Men will feel more envious towards those rivals that are better off for their ability to acquire resources, while women will target youth and physical attractiveness (Buss, 1989a). Gender effect was also found in Wobker and Kenning's (2013) experimental study of drivers and outcome of envy in an economic group game. The game was set up in a way that participants were free to choose their strategy while playing the game. ...
... Focusing initially on the phenomenon of social distancing, they found that pairs of strangers, playing a competitive coordination game, reach a more efficient outcome than pairs of friends. Another experimental study (Wobker & Kenning, 2013) expanded the organizational context to economic decision-making by using the gaming procedure with real money and possible gain. In the first phase, participants played a winnertake-all game to set up unequal gain. ...
Envy is a word signifying an emotion that arises from social comparison and signals that one is outperformed by another person, or group of people, which makes one feel painful inferiority. It originates from the Latin "invidere" which means to "gaze maliciously". Yet, this emotion does not want to be communicated. It is hard to identify or admit it, partly because of a range of other negative emotions, such as hostility, resentment and rejection that accompany envious feelings. Envy may also trigger admiration that motivates one to "do better". However, subjective, historical and philosophical accounts overwhelmingly speak of its negative consequences. Not surprisingly, envy is regarded as a social taboo. Even the traditional scientific community considers envy as a "second class" emotion. It is said that envy does not meet the criteria for basic emotions. Only recently, with the paradigmatic shift in modern evolutionary psychology, a new framework was offered and started shedding light onto the emotion nobody likes to feel, think or talk about. This paper presents a review of theoretical considerations, predictions and empirical results, emerging from a relatively small amount of studies that incited a change in the conceptualization of this unwanted and seemingly inept emotion.
... Furthermore, the questionnaire has been validated in different national versions, including the Vietnamese version (e.g., Truong et al., 2022). Wobker and Kenning (2013) observed that gender influences strategic decision-making in individuals exhibiting destructive envy behavior. ...
Introduction
This study explores the phenomenon of envy directed towards the opposite sex. Envy is a complex emotion that can manifest in various forms, often reflecting societal and biological influences. Previous research suggests a potential imbalance in the domains where men and women experience envy.
Methods
The research was conducted in the Czech Republic using a demographically representative sample of 1,769 individuals (867 men and 902 women). Respondents were asked what they envied about the opposite sex, and qualitative analysis was performed on their answers. A total of 32 distinct categories of envy were identified.
Results
The analysis revealed significant differences between men and women in the nature of their envy. Women expressed envy towards men in domains linked to biological conditions and social advantages, such as salary, prestige, physical strength, and the absence of menstruation, childbirth, and menopause. Men, on the other hand, envied women for their physical attractiveness, ease of seduction, ability to perform traditionally female tasks, and motherhood. Some categories, such as safety and tolerance, were shared by both genders, but the underlying reasons differed. For instance, women envied men for not having to fear being alone, while men envied women for being protected by men.
Discussion
These findings confirm existing evidence of a gender imbalance in envy. The study also uncovered a novel form of envy, termed “ablative envy”, which refers to the desire for the absence of an unpleasant quality. This suggests that envy between the sexes is deeply rooted in both biological and social factors, offering new insights into gender dynamics.
... Note too that destructive envy-driven actions directed at superior in-group members reduces the group's overall welfare as it harms, at a minimum, the welfare of both the envier and the envied without benefiting the standing of the group whatsoever(Frank, 1985;Hill & Buss, 2008;Wobker & Kenning, 2013).22 That is, the individual should become increasingly less the focus of positive social interactions (as in situations when cooperation, support and succor are offered), but more so, the destination of negative investments (as in situations when harm is inflicted, for instance). ...
Our model of radicalization articulates three readings of the phenomenon: (1) the rationality of the radicalized agent, (2) the prime mover explaining important facets of the phenomena, and (3) the strategic typification of concerns for the persuasion of wider audiences. We show that the rationality of the radicalized agent can be characterized as the calibration of specific parameters that determines a modality of thought, the R.A.S.H. mentality, which accounts for essential aspects of the radicalized mind. We propose further to reorient the causal arrow that has been privileged in the models of radicalization so far by linking radicalization to the experience of envy, an evolved emotion that motivates individuals to monitor their surroundings, to assess the prosperity of others, and to seek the elimination of differences. We conclude with the process of typification, which consists in widening the reach of concerns by simultaneously eliminating the particulars of the personal situation motivating the radicalized agent and evoking collective circumstance templates belonging to a repertoire of universal social forms.
... As envy is an emotion that has a negative valence that generates feelings of displeasure and pain (Lieberman and Eisenberger, 2008), people develop mechanisms to cope with its uncomfortable effects ( Van de Ven et al., 2010). Possible responses range from motivation for self-improvement, which is considered a benign form of envy that makes people feel better about themselves, to demoralization, which is proper or malicious envy characterized by feelings of inferiority and frustration (Wobker and Kenning, 2013 (Heider, 1958). Thus, the uncomfortableness of envy comes from the perception of inferiority and from the shame associated with feeling in such a way (Smith, 2004). ...
Purpose
This paper aims to fill a gap in the existing literature by answering the following question: is the effect of envy on people's intention to share information the same in offline settings and on online social networks?
Design/methodology/approach
Two studies demonstrate (1) how envy that results from upward social comparisons affects people's intention to share information and (2) the difference between online and offline settings.
Findings
The likelihood of sharing information susceptible of triggering envy is lower in online social networks than in an offline scenario.
Research limitations/implications
In digital environments, feelings of envy depend on the number of social comparisons that the individual is exposed to.
Practical implications
This research recommends (1) incorporating tools that allow online social network users to feel part of their network's successes, (2) promoting offline diffusion of information and (3) encouraging people to play an active role when using online social networks.
Social implications
Benefits can be derived from offering tools that permit receivers to take advantage of the selective self-presentation of other users. Such tools could have positive consequences for the welfare of online social network users.
Originality/value
To date, the literature has paid no attention to envy as an engine of information sharing. This aspect is especially relevant when discussing platforms whose main goal is precisely information sharing and that offer fertile ground for upward social comparisons.
... In the IA model, envy can be defined as a disutility in presence of disadvantageous inequality. This definition proposes a stylized version of envy that differs from the emotion itself in many aspects (Wobker & Kenning, 2013). Since behavioral economists typically focus on agents' decisions and on their consequences in terms of utility, they develop behavioral models satisfying a limited number of conditions. ...
... 1. This study is based on a sample first reported in a previous publication by the author (Wobker and Kenning, 2013). This previous study had a different scope than this study and out of the four scales investigated in the work presented here, only one construct, spiteful behavior, had also been part of the previous publication. ...
When receiving less resources than a competitor, envy may be evoked that may result in spiteful behavior. This paper applies evolutionary theory to understand envy and its outcomes. A theoretical framework is developed that is based on the cause–effect relationships of unequal outcomes, envy, defection of cooperation, and welfare loss. To test this framework, an experiment with 136 participants is run. The results confirm that receiving less than another can indeed lead to experiences of envy and defection of future cooperation, producing a welfare loss of one-sixth. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
We report two meta-analyses on the determinants of antisocial behavior in experimental settings in which such behavior is not rationally motivated by pecuniary incentives. The first meta-analysis employs aggregate data from 95 published and unpublished studies (24,086 participants), using laboratory, field and online experiments carried out since 2000. We find that antisocial behavior depends significantly on the experimental setting, being highest in vendetta games and lowest in social dilemmas. As we find significant heterogeneity across the studies, including across game classes, in the second meta-analysis, we focus only on “Joy of Destruction” (JoD) and money-burning (MB) experiments, for which we have the most observations, 51 studies and around 16,784 participants. Overall, our findings suggest that procedural fairness and being observed by others reduce the frequency of antisocial behavior. Online and field experiments display more antisocial behavior than laboratory experiments. We also find that the strategy method biases antisocial behavior upward. However, we do not find evidence for a positive publication bias being correlated with higher destructive behavior, either in the general meta-analysis or in relation to JoD/MB experiments; if anything, there is evidence of a negative publication bias. The JoD/MB meta-analysis finds evidence of a price effect for destruction frequency, negative discrimination against outsiders, within-subject designs underestimating destructive behavior, and more antisocial behavior in one-shot interactions. Collectively, our results point to the value of more laboratory experiments that systematically build on paradigmatic experimental designs to enable comparability and the identification of key economic drivers of antisocial behavior.
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.
An outcome of upward social comparisons that has been largely overlooked is its effect on non‐transactional behaviours (i.e., word of mouth). Previous research has identified three different emotional reactions to upward social comparisons: admiration, benign envy and malicious envy. Despite the fact that their effect on consumption has been previously analysed, it remains unclear how these reactions affect word of mouth intention. This study carries out an experimental design that demonstrates that admiration and benign envy positively influence word of mouth behaviour. However, there is no effect of malicious envy on such disposition. The results are sustained under different cultural contexts. The findings shed light on the drivers of word of mouth. They offer guidance to companies for developing more effective strategies to encourage both brand message sharing and consumer‐to‐consumer sharing of consumption experiences.
Managerial debiasing studies are rare because it is often challenging to obtain manager samples to perform the required experiments. Student subjects could mitigate this difficulty, but there is widespread uncertainty regarding their implications for a study’s validity. In this paper, I first trace the debate, and structure the literature, on the use of student subjects in business research in general. Next, I propose a conceptual framework of criteria to identify under which circumstances student subjects can be valid surrogates in managerial debiasing research. Finally, I illustrate the use of the framework by repeating an extant debiasing study conducted with management practitioners with a large sample of business students (N = 1423), showing that the student sample replicates the results from the manager sample to the expected degree. I close by discussing the study’s implications, limitations, and opportunities for future research.
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.
At first glance, envy appears to be a maladaptive emotion. A great deal of subjective distress, workplace angst, and sibling rivalry owes itself to this potentially destructive emotion. Envy, however, is as ubiquitous as it is socially undesirable. Young children and adults alike are quick to take note when something is "not fair," although over time they become more adept at keeping such observations to themselves. The recognition of another's advantage, and the feelings of unfairness and hostility that sometimes follow, are an important part of what it means to be human. Despite its reputation as being distasteful, tacky, petty, and downright gauche, it is likely that envy has played an important role in humans' quest for the resources necessary for successful survival and reproduction over the course of evolutionary time. This chapter provides an evolutionary psychological account of envy. First, it explores the hypothesized function of envy by detailing the adaptive problems for which it is hypothesized to be an evolved solution. It then addresses how an evolutionary account of envy organizes existing empirical discoveries about the nature of envy. Finally, the chapter presents suggestions for future directions of envy research that are made possible when viewing this emotion from an evolutionary psychological perspective.
Caution: The print version may differ in minor respects from this draft. Posted only for scholarly/educational use. Please contact the publisher directly for permission to reprint. Evolutionary psychology is an approach to the psychological sciences in which principles and results drawn from evolutionary biology, cognitive science, anthropology, and neuroscience are integrated with the rest of psychology in order to map human nature. By human nature, evolutionary psychologists mean the evolved, reliably developing, species-typical computational and neural architecture of the human mind and brain. According to this view, the functional components that comprise this architecture were designed by natural selection to solve adaptive problems faced by our hunter-gatherer ancestors, and to regulate behavior so that these adaptive problems were successfully addressed (for discussion, see Cosmides & Tooby, 1987, Tooby & Cosmides, 1992). Evolutionary psychology is not a specific subfield of psychology, such as the study of vision, reasoning, or social behavior. It is a way of thinking about psychology that can be applied to any topic within it -including the emotions. The analysis of adaptive problems that arose ancestrally has led evolutionary psychologists to apply the concepts and methods of the cognitive sciences to scores of topics that are relevant to the study of emotion, such as the cognitive processes that govern cooperation, sexual attraction, jealousy, aggression, parental love, friendship, romantic love, the aesthetics of landscape preferences, coalitional aggression, incest avoidance, disgust, predator avoidance, kinship, and family relations (for reviews, see Barkow, Cosmides, & Tooby, 1992; Crawford & Krebs, 1998; Daly & Wilson, 1988; Pinker, 1997). Indeed, a rich theory of the emotions naturally emerges out of the core principles of evolutionary psychology (Tooby 1985; Tooby & Cosmides, 1990a; see also Nesse, 1991). In this chapter we will (1) briefly state what we think emotions are and what adaptive problem they were designed to solve; (2) explain the evolutionary and cognitive principles that led us to this view; and (3) using this background, explicate in a more detailed way the design of emotion programs and the states they create.
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 chapter discusses what social comparison theorists have to say about envious people and their targets, as well as the situational factors that nurture or discourage envy. It explores the conditions under which social comparisons are most likely to engender envy, as well as the consequences of envious feelings for oneself and their source. It considers both interpersonal and intergroup envy, and looks at directions for future research.
A substantial number of people exhibit social preferences, which means they are not solely motivated by material self-interest but also care positively or negatively for the material payoffs of relevant reference agents. We show empirically that economists fail to understand funda- mental economic questions when they disregard social preferences, in particular, that without taking social preferences into account, it is not possible to understand adequately (i) effects of competition on market outcomes, (ii) laws governing cooperation and collective action, (iii) effects and the determinants of material incentives, (iv) which contracts and property rights arrangements are optimal, and (v) important forces shaping social norms and market failures. Economics may be called the dismal science because economists routinely make worst case assumptions regarding people's motives. Economic reasoning is typic- ally based on the self-interest hypothesis, ie, on the assumption that all people are exclusively motivated by their material self-interest. This assumption rules out any heterogeneity with respect to other-regarding, social, preferences. It also contrasts sharply with economists' emphasis on the heterogeneity of people's tastes with regard to consumption activities. Our models typically allow heterogeneous tastes with regard to apples and bananas, with regard to hazardous and safe jobs, etc., but in the important realm of social preferences mainstream economics adheres to the extreme self-interest assumption. The purpose of this paper is to show that economists fail to understand core questions in economics if they insist on the self-interest hypothesis and rule out heterogeneity in the realm of social preferences. This is so for two reasons. First, during the last decade experimental economists have gathered over- whelming evidence that systematically refutes the self-interest hypothesis and suggests that a substantial fraction of the people exhibit social preferences, in particular, preferences for reciprocal fairness. Second, there is also strong evidence indicating that the deviations from self-interest have a fundamental impact on core issues in economics.
We investigate experimentally the impact of unflattering social comparisons on individuals’ behaviour. More precisely, we examine the relationship between the satisfaction subjects derive from social comparisons and subjects’ decisions to reduce others’ income. In our experiment, subjects are randomly paired and receive an endowment. Then subjects have to report their satisfaction level after being informed of their own endowment and of their opponent’s endowment. Then they can choose, or not, to reduce their opponent’s endowment incurring a personal cost. We observe: (1) most people report their satisfaction to be negatively affected by learning others’ endowments; (2) destructive decisions are predominantly undertaken by dissatisfied subjects; (3) satisfaction is negatively affected by absolute difference (difference between subjects’ endowments measured in absolute terms) and (4) relative difference between subjects’ endowments modulates subjects’ negative behaviour.
We have shown1 that animals compare their own rewards with those of others, and accept or reject rewards according to their relative value. Our aim was not to demonstrate that capuchin monkeys make a human response to inequality, but rather to elucidate evolutionary precursors to inequity aversion. We use this term as in ref. 2 — "people resist inequitable outcomes; that is, they are willing to give up some material pay-off to move in the direction of more equitable outcomes" — and specifically focus on "disadvantageous inequity aversion"2. The monkeys in our experiment could not change the reward division, and hence could not actively avoid inequality, but we wanted to determine whether they would at least recognize inequality if subjected to it. We found that the capuchins reacted negatively, refusing to complete the interaction.
Three studies examined preferences for outcomes to self and a codisputant. Studies 1 and 2 estimated social utility functions from judgments of satisfaction with alternative outcomes. Comparing functional forms, we found that a utility function, including terms for own payoff and for positive and negative discrepancies between the parties' payoff (advantageous and disadvantageous inequality), provides a close fit to the data. The typical utility function is steeply increasing and convex for disadvantageous inequality and weakly declining and convex for advantageous inequality. We manipulated dispute type (personal, business) and disputant relationship (positive, neutral, or negative) and found that both strongly influence preferences for advantageous but not disadvantageous inequality. A third study contrasted implications of the social utility functions with predictions of individual utility theories. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Psychological research involving scale construction has been hindered considerably by a widespread lack of understanding of coefficient alpha and reliability theory in general. A discussion of the assumptions and meaning of coefficient alpha is presented. This discussion is followed by a demonstration of the effects of test length and dimensionality on alpha by calculating the statistic for hypothetical tests with varying numbers of items, numbers of orthogonal dimensions, and average item intercorrelations. Recommendations for the proper use of coefficient alpha are offered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
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.
We review 74 experiments with no, low, or high performance-based financial incentives. The modal result has no effect on mean performance (though variance is usually reduced by higher payment). Higher incentive does improve performance often, typically judgment tasks that are responsive to better effort. Incentives also reduce presentation effects (e.g., generosity and risk-seeking). Incentive effects are comparable to effects of other variables, particularly cognitive capital and task production demands, and interact with those variables, so a narrow-minded focus on incentives alone is misguided. We also note that no replicated study has made rationality violations disappear purely by raising incentives.
This paper attempts to test the hypothesis that utility depends on income relative to a ‘comparison’ or reference level. Using data on 5,000 British workers, it provides two findings. First, workers' reported satisfaction levels are shown to be inversely related to their comparison wage rates. Second, holding income constant, satisfaction levels are shown to be strongly declining in the level of education. More generally, the paper tries to help begin the task of constructing an economics of job satisfaction.
Present conditions and selection pressures are irrelevant to the present design of organisms and do not explain how or why organisms behave adaptively, when they do. To whatever non-chance extent organisms are behaving adaptively, it is 1) because of the operation of underlying adaptations whose present design is the product of selection in the past, and 2) because present conditions resemble past conditions in those specific ways made developmentally and functionally important by the design of those adaptations. All adaptations evolved in response to the repeating elements of past environments, and their structure reflects in detail the recurrent structure of ancestral environments. Even planning mechanisms (such as “consciousness”), which supposedly deal with novel situations, depend on ancestrally shaped categorization processes and are therefore not free of the fast. In fact, the categorization of each new situation into evolutionarily repeating classes involves another kind of adaptation, the emotions, which match specialized modes of organismic operation to evolutionarily recurrent situations. The detailed statistical structure of these iterated systems of events is reflected in the detailed structure of the algorithms that govern emotional state. For this reason, the system of psychological adaptations that comprises each individual meets the present only as a version of the past.
This chapter discusses social behavior through self-evaluation maintenance (SEM) model. It describes several studies to provide a feel for the kind of research that has been completed in an attempt to explore the predictions of the model. The SEM model is composed of two dynamic processes. Both the reflection process and the comparison process have as component variables the closeness of another and the quality of that other's performance. These two variables interact in affecting self-evaluation but do so in quite opposite ways in each of the processes Model establishes the comprehensiveness of the research and the interactive quality of its predictions. Next, the SEM model is fit into the perspective of related work, including self-theories, social comparison theory, and Cialdini's BIRGing research. The chapter reviews the epistemological status of the model. It discusses some of the implications of the research for a variety of areas in psychology.
There is strong evidence that people exploit their bargaining power in competitive markets but not in bilateral bargaining
situations. There is also strong evidence that people exploit free-riding opportunities in voluntary cooperation games. Yet,
when they are given the opportunity to punish free riders, stable cooperation is maintained, although punishment is costly
for those who punish. This paper asks whether there is a simple common principle that can explain this puzzling evidence. We show that if some people care about equity the puzzles can be resolved. It turns
out that the economic environment determines whether the fair types or the selfish types dominate equilibrium behavior.
In a series of 4 experiments, we provide evidence that--in addition to having an affective component--envy may also have important consequences for cognitive processing. Our first experiment (N = 69) demonstrated that individuals primed with envy better attended to and more accurately recalled information about fictitious peers than did a control group. Studies 2 (N = 187) and 3 (N = 65) conceptually replicated these results, demonstrating that envy elicited by targets predicts attention and later memory for information about them. We demonstrate that these effects cannot be accounted for by admiration or changes in negative affect or arousal elicited by the targets. Study 4 (N = 152) provides evidence that greater memory for envied--but not neutral--targets leads to diminished perseverance on a difficult anagram task. Findings demonstrate that envy may play an important role in attention and memory systems and deplete limited self-regulatory resources available for acts of volition.
This 2004 book showcases research and theory about the way in which the social environment shapes, and is shaped by, emotion. The book has three sections, each of which addresses a different level of sociality: interpersonal, intragroup, and intergroup. The first section refers to the links between specific individuals, the second to categories that define multiple individuals as an entity, and the final to the boundaries between groups. Emotions are found in each of these levels and the dynamics involved in these types of relationship are part of what it is to experience emotion. The chapters show how all three types of social relationships generate, and are generated by, emotions. In doing so, this book locates emotional experiences in the larger social context.
Emotions: A Brief History investigates the history of emotions across cultures as well as the evolutionary history of emotions and of emotional development across an individual's life span. In clear and accessible language, Keith Oatley examines key topics such as emotional intelligence, emotion and the brain, and emotional disorders. Throughout, he interweaves three themes: the changes that emotions have undergone from the past to the present, the extent to which we are able to control our emotions, and the ways in which emotions help us discern the deeper layers of ourselves and our relationships.
We model agents whose preferences exhibit envy. An envious agent's utility increases with what he has and decreases with what others have. With this setup, we are able to provide a new perspective on the nature of investment distortions with centralized and decentralized capital budgeting systems. Centralized capital budgeting leads to corporate socialism in investments in multidivisional firms, whereas decentralized capital budgeting leads to overinvestment. Numerous additional testable predictions are also generated.
A routine fact of life is that we often meet people who are superior to us in some way. When their superiority matters to us, we can feel envy. Here is Shakespeare's Cassius, a literary prototype of the envying person, as he protests the honors being heaped on Caesar: Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world Like a Colossus, and we petty men Walk under his huge legs and peep about To find ourselves dishonorable graves. (Shakespeare, 1599/1934, p. 41) These words show an important quality of envy. The envying person notices another's advantage or superiority and feels inferior. Caesar was an exceptional man who had achieved military and political greatness, and Cassius felt undersized and trivial next to his grand presence. Envy begins with an unflattering social comparison resulting in a quick, painful perception of inferiority (e.g., Foster, 1972; Parrott, 1991; Salovey & Rodin, 1984; Silver
This study used deservingness theory to investigate the effects of assigned status on reactions to a high achiever's success and on both pleasure or schadenfreude and sympathy following the high achiever's failure. Deservingness was manipulated by varying the amount of effort, high or low, associated with performance outcome. Participants were 251 undergraduates who role-played a student whose academic performance status was either low, average, or high. Results showed that lower assigned status was associated with more resentment and less pleasure concerning the performance outcomes of both role-player and high achiever, and with more reported schadenfreude and less sympathy for the failed high achiever. Schadenfreude was also predicted by resentment and displeasure related to the deservingness of the high achiever and by a wish to denigrate the high achiever.
This paper develops a model, with assumptions similar to those of the linear model, for use when the observed dependent variable is ordinal. This model is an extension of the dichotomous probit model, and assumes that the ordinal nature of the observed dependent variable is due to methodological limitations in collecting the data, which force the researcher to lump together and identify various portions of an (otherwise) interval level variable. The model assumes a linear eflect of each independent variable as well as a series of break points between categories for the dependent variable. Maximum likelihood estimators are found for these parameters, along with their asymptotic sampling distributions, and an analogue of R (the coefficient of determination in regression analysis) is defined to measure goodness of fit. The use of the model is illustrated with an analysis of Congressional voting on the 1965 Medicare Bill.
This chapter seeks to begin discussion concerning the role of employee jealousy and envy. In the following sections, we consider the definition of jealousy and envy in the workplace, consequences of these emotions, the utility of existing organizational theories for understanding these emotions, their measurement, the generation of specific hypotheses that pertain to these emotion experiences, some preliminary evidence on several of the hypotheses, the management of negative emotions, and further issues associated with the organizational and cross-cultural aspects of these emotions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
This completely rewritten classic text features many new examples, insights, and topics including mediational, categorical, and multilevel models. Substantially reorganized, this edition provides a briefer, more streamlined examination of data analysis. Noted for its model comparison approach and unified framework based on the general linear model, the book provides readers with a greater understanding of a variety of statistical procedures. This consistent framework, including consistent vocabulary and notation, is used throughout to develop fewer but more powerful model building techniques. The authors show how all analysis of variance and multiple regression can be accomplished within this framework. The model comparison approach provides several benefits: It strengthens the intuitive understanding of the material, thereby increasing the ability to successfully analyze data in the future; It provides more control in the analysis of data so that readers can apply the techniques to a broader spectrum of questions; It reduces the number of statistical techniques that must be memorized; It teaches readers how to become data analysts instead of statisticians. The book opens with an overview of data analysis. All the necessary concepts for statistical inference used throughout the book are introduced in Chapters 2 through 4. The remainder of the book builds on these models. Chapters 5-7 focus on regression analysis, followed by analysis of variance (ANOVA), mediational analyses, nonindependent or correlated errors, including multilevel modeling, and outliers and error violations. The book is appreciated by all for its detailed treatment of ANOVA, multiple regression, nonindependent observations, interactive and nonlinear models of data, and its guidance for treating outliers and other problematic aspects of data analysis. Intended for advanced undergraduate or graduate courses on data analysis, statistics, and/or quantitative methods taught in psychology, education, or other behavioral and social science departments, this book also appeals to researchers who analyze data. A protected website featuring additional examples and problems with datasets, lecture notes, PowerPoint presentations, and class-tested exam questions is available to adopters. This material uses SAS but can easily be adapted to other programs. A working knowledge of basic algebra and any multiple regression program is assumed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Two hypotheses concerning the hostile and depressive components of envy were tested: that hostile feelings are associated with a subjective belief that the envy-producing difference is unfair and that depressive feelings are associated with a sense of inferiority evoked by the envied person's advantage. Subjects wrote autobiographical accounts of experiences of envy and then indicated how unfair (in both a subjective and an objective sense) they believed the envied person's advantage was, how inferior the advantage made them feel, and how hostile and depressed they felt. Multiple regression analysis generally supported the hypotheses. Hostile feelings were predicted by subjective injustice beliefs and objective injustice beliefs but not by inferiority beliefs. Depressive feelings, however, were predicted largely by inferiority beliefs but also by subjective injustice beliefs. Envy, especially in its typically hostile form, may need to be understood as resulting in part from a subjective, yet robust, sense of injustice.
Although many scholars have argued that individual differences in proneness to envy can have wide-ranging implications for social interactions, the empirical testing of these claims is largely undeveloped. We created a single-factor Dispositional Envy Scale (DES) to measure individual differences in tendencies to envy, and examined some of the implications of such differences. Study 1 indicated that the DES is a reliable, stable measure, containing items suiting theoretical criteria for the makeup of dispositional envy. Study 2 supported the construct validity of the DES by showing that it is correlated with other individual difference measures in theoretically compatible ways. Studies 3 and 4 supplied diverse ways of establishing the criterion-related validity of the DES by showing that it moderated envious responses to another person’s superiority and that it predicted envy beyond other correlated individual measures of neuroticism, self-esteem, cynical hostility, and socially desirable responding.
Is it better to be a big frog in a small pond or a small frog in a big pond? In this lively and original book, the author argues persuasively that people's concerns about status permeate and profoundly alter a broad range of human behaviour. He takes issue with his fellow economists for too often neglecting fundamental elements in human nature in their study of how people make basic economic choices.
A general formula (α) of which a special case is the Kuder-Richardson coefficient of equivalence is shown to be the mean of
all split-half coefficients resulting from different splittings of a test. α is therefore an estimate of the correlation between
two random samples of items from a universe of items like those in the test. α is found to be an appropriate index of equivalence
and, except for very short tests, of the first-factor concentration in the test. Tests divisible into distinct subtests should
be so divided before using the formula. The index
[`(r)]ij\bar r_{ij}
, derived from α, is shown to be an index of inter-item homogeneity. Comparison is made to the Guttman and Loevinger approaches.
Parallel split coefficients are shown to be unnecessary for tests of common types. In designing tests, maximum interpretability
of scores is obtained by increasing the first-factor concentration in any separately-scored subtest and avoiding substantial
group-factor clusters within a subtest. Scalability is not a requisite.
This paper considers Tullock contests with altruistic and envious individuals as players. Altruism (envy) is beheld as another
motivation for low (high) dissipation rates in contests. A pure population of altruists has higher payoffs than a purely envious
population, but the altruist has a lower payoff if he is confronted with an envious individual. In an evolutionary approach
in which the population share of the type with the higher material payoff rises, it can be shown that there is a possibility
of either envy or altruism becoming extinct. Furthermore, we find an advantage of envy in such a manner that very altruistic
individuals always die out, but very envious ones only do so under certain conditions.
Fairness is a strong concern as shown by dictator and ultimatum experiments. Efficiency, measured by the sum of individual payoffs, is a potentially competing concern in games, such as the prisoners’ dilemma. In our experiment, the participants can increase efficiency by giving gifts. In the one-sided treatment, this is only possible for one of the two partners. The two-sided treatment allows for mutual gift giving. In both cases, decisions can be conditioned on whether there is or there is not an efficiency gain by gift giving. Our results indicate that efficiency concerns are dominated by fairness concerns that are less stringent in mutual exchanges than in one-sided gift relationships.
This paper argues that it is important to include the other party's payoff in a competitor's utility (satisfaction) function. Examples of the impact are provided as well as implications for multi-stage games (competitions). A sample of 200 provides empirical support for the critical role other party results play in satisfaction, in particular the importance of relative payoffs. Several implications emerge, including a parsimonious explanation for the exponential pattern of shares in mature markets.
This paper explores the evolution of humans as social beings and the implications of this for economic theory and policy. A major flaw in Walrasian economics is the assumption of “self-regarding” agents—economic actors make decisions independently of social context and without regard to the behavior of other consumers and firms. Truly other-regarding behavior, such as altruism and altruistic punishment, cannot be fully captured in the standard economic model. Standard economic assumptions about human behavior make pure altruism an irrational “anomaly” that cannot survive the evolutionary selection process. However, recent findings from neuroscience, behavioral economics evolutionary game theory and animal behavior have paved the way for a realistic, science-based, and policy-relevant foundation for economic theory. Other-regarding emotions such as altruism, love, and envy are an essential part of the human experience. We use the Price equation, showing the feasibility of the evolution of group selection of altruistic preferences, to explore some of the implications of this phenomenon for economic theory and policy. We explore evidence that the human capacity for empathy evolved from primates and suggest that this was the precursor for human morality. We suggest that if we drop the assumption that fitness is equated with the consumption of market goods, pure altruism is no longer fitness reducing, particularly in western societies. We also examine individual preferences for altruism in terms of their effect on well being.
The behaviour of subjects in ultimatum bargaining experiments is very different from that predicted by standard theory. These ‘anomalies’ are frequently explained by fairness considerations. In this paper we consider the possibility that the subjects are simply envious. We derive the implications of envy for the behaviour in ultimatum games and it will be shown that envy is a potential explanation for the most important experimental ‘anomalies’. This points toward the need to set up experiments which allow to discriminate between fairness- and envy-motivated behaviour.
We designed an experiment to study trust and reciprocity in an investment setting. This design controls for alternative explanations of behavior including repeat game reputation effects, contractual precommitments, and punishment threats. Observed decisions suggest that reciprocity exists as a basic element of human behavior and that this is accounted for in the trust extended to an anonymous counterpart. A second treatment, social history, identifies conditions which strengthen the relationship between trust and reciprocity.
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Over the past decades scientific studies have revealed a number of striking sex differences in the human brain. This chapter highlights some of the most important discoveries with particular emphasis on macro-anatomical observations based on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data. Cross-references to animal studies and to post mortem analyses, as well as an overview with respect to micro-anatomical findings, are provided. The chapter concludes with a discussion of possible determinants of sex differences in brain anatomy. The main goal of this chapter is to exemplify the variety of findings and to demonstrate how the presence, magnitude, and direction of observed sex differences strongly depend on a number of factors including (but not limited to) the following: the brain structure examined (cerebral cortex, corpus callosum, etc.), the specific brain feature assessed (cortical thickness, cortical convolution, etc.), the degree of regional specificity (global gray matter volume, voxel-wise gray matter volume, etc.), and whether measurements are adjusted for individual brain size or not.
PsychologyAlthough undergraduates from wealthy nations are numerous and willing research subjects, psychologists are beginning to realize that they have a drawback: They are WEIRDos. That is, they are people from Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic cultures. In a provocative review paper published last week, a pair of researchers argues that WEIRDos aren't representative of humans as a whole and that psychologists routinely use them to make broad, and quite likely false, claims about what drives human behavior.