Envy, Competition and Gender

Medium.com, 2022

Envy and its Objects, 2019

The paper critically discusses the thesis, originally put forth by Taylor (2006), that there is a (mostly benign) form of envy whose target is the good possessed by someone else. Section 2 analyzes the distinction between object-envy and state-envy, discusses the connection between object-envy and benign envy, and develops the ethical consequences that follow from the thesis that envy is never benign. Section 3 presents a thought experiment with five variations developed from the basic elements of object-envy: an agent, a good the agent desires but lacks, and a person who possesses the good. The variations generate emotions like longing, sadness, happiness for, admiration, covetousness, self-disappointment, but they do not generate envy. Section 4 concentrates on envious self-reproach and shows that its nature and genesis are different from the self-disappointment one may experience in other forms of self-assessment. Section 5 argues that the so-called sour-grape syndrome serves different goals when it is connected to a good one lacks and when it is connected to envious comparisons. Section 6 maintains that what looks like benign envy can be better understood as emulous admiration. In conclusion, the paper argues that object-envy is not a useful concept. The desired goods are not valued in themselves when a person feels envy. Rather, they are taken to signal the superior recognition enjoyed by someone else within the reference group that is currently deemed important by the agent.

Psyke & Logos, 2012

Experiencing envy is an intrinsic part of social comparison of possessions, characteristics or qualities among people or groups. The persons involved in this social comparison are sometimes flattered or, on the contrary, sometimes damaged. When social comparisons lead to negative feelings and people are faced with the lack of a desired good (an item/object) or a trait, they may experience anger, helplessness or inferiority. Hence, some authors have stressed that envy could cause hostility towards the person envied (Miceli & Castelfranchi, 2007; Smith & Kim, 2007; Shoeck, 1966). At times, envy is disguised as contempt; sometimes it manifests itself through open aggression, harassment, sabotage or a threat in order to compensate for a lower social position. At times the envious person may attack by diminishing the pleasure or joy of the person envied (

Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy, 2019

Background: Envy is depicted as motivating destructive desires and actions intended to spoil or destroy that which is envied. Aim: To develop a new valid and reliable measure of malicious envy (C-BRES), which included items representing the cognitive, emotional and behavioural responses empirically associated with this emotion. Method: A total of 203 adults completed the new 22-item cognitive and behavioural responses to envy scale (C-BRES). Exploratory factor analysis was carried out to test for reliability and internal consistency of the C-BRES. Evidence towards the concurrent construct validity (convergent and discriminant) of the C-BRES was assessed through correlations with the Dispositional envy scale and other measures of psychosocial outcomes empirically linked to envy. Results: Factor analysis for categorical data identified five dimensions of envy, namely: injustice, hostility, malicious action tendencies, malicious feelings and behavioural responses. The reliability indic...

Cognitive Therapy and Research, 2020

Envy is a ubiquitous social emotion often associated with depression, hostility and shame. Often confused with jealousy which involves the fear or anger that a primary relationship is threatened by a third party, envy is an emotion focused on threats to status such that another person’s “gain” is viewed as a “loss” for the self. There is very little in the cognitive behavioral literature on the nature and treatment of envy. In this article I outline the research on the nature of envy, the evolutionary model of envy, the relevance of an integrative CBT model that draws on Beck’s Generic Cognitive Model and Emotional Schema Therapy, and the implications for case conceptualization and treatment.

Frontiers in Psychology, 2020

Envy is a negative emotion experienced in response to another person’s higher status. However, little is known about the composition of its most important element: status. The present research investigates the two main forms of social status (objective and subjective) in the generation of envy. In Study 1, participants recounted real-life situations when they felt envious; in Study 2 we examined whether the effect was the same in a controlled situation. We consistently found that those who were the most respected in the eyes of others were envied more than the richest ones. Furthermore, perceived deservingness of the superior other’s success differentiated between benign and malicious envy. Although previous studies focused on material comparisons when investigating envy, our results indicate that envy is rather a subjective social status related emotion. Not material, but social advantage of the superior other causes the most painful envy and future studies should put more emphasis...

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.jasp_519

Journal of Personality …, 2010

We present 2 studies on being envied. Study 1 used an emotional narrative methodology. We asked 44 Spanish (23 women, 21 men) and 48 European American (36 women, 12 men) participants to tell us about a recent experience in which others envied them. We classified the antecedents, relationship context, markers of envy, coping strategies, and positive and negative implications of being envied. In Study 2, 174 Spanish (88 women, 86 men) and 205 European American (106 women, 99 men) participants responded to a situation in which they had something someone else wanted. We manipulated the object of desire (academic achievement or having "a better life"). We measured individual differences in orientation to achievement (i.e., vertical individualism), cooperation and interpersonal harmony (i.e., horizontal collectivism), a zero-sum view of success, beliefs that success begets hostile coveting, fear of success, and dispositional envy. We also measured participants' appraisals, positive and negative emotions, and coping strategies. The findings from both studies indicate that being envied has both positive (e.g., increased self-confidence) and negative consequences (e.g., fear of ill will from others). Being envied had more positive and more negative psychological and relational consequences among those participants who were achievement oriented (European Americans) than among participants who were oriented to cooperation and interpersonal harmony (Spanish).

British Journal of Psychotherapy, 1991

This paper provides a critical discussion of Klein's theory of envy as primary, an innate aspect of the destructive forces. The author argues that envy is the outcome of a defective mother/ infant fit in which the infant's need for illusory omnipotence is not met, resulting in a sense of lack of sufficient internal resources to manage existence as a separate individual (i.e. feelings of worthlessness and helplessness). Envy arises from this sense of lack through the compensatory fantasy of an all-providing other who possesses the qualities required to fill the gap. If the gap is felt to be intolerable, destructive spoiling ensues as an attempt to obliterate it. This aspect of envy is therefore seen as ultimately defensive rather than, as in Klein's view, a primary impulse against which defences are instituted.