Psychology Commons^™

The Effects Of Being The Target Of Envy On Satisfaction With Success, Stephen Ratliff, Lauren E. Brewer, Kyle E. Conlon

Undergraduate Research Conference

Envy has been defined as wanting something that someone else has, which is distinct from jealousy, because jealousy is emotion fueled by an evolutionary need to protect one’s mate (Parrot & Smith, 1993) .

Benign and malicious envy are distinct in how they motivate us. Benign envy motivates us to perform as well as the target of envy, whereas malicious envy motivates us to sabotage the performance of the target of envy (Lange & Crusius, 2015).

Benign envy is exhibited through feelings of motivation whereas malicious envy is exhibited through feelings of anger (van de Ven, Zeelenberg, & Pieters, 2011; …