Benign Envy Research Articles

I want to go there too! Tourism destination envy in social media marketing

Envy has been widely discussed as a type of consumption motivation and a consumer attitude towards specific consumer goods in the context of social media. However, research on envy in tourism consumption decision-making is still relatively scarce. Accordingly, adopting social cognitive theory while considering benign envy, this study discusses the impact of social media content on consumers' destination envy and behavioural intention during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using a survey of 320 Chinese tourists who travelled to Macao, this paper develops and tests a conceptual framework. The results show that destination envy plays an intermediary role between social media content and consumer behavioural intention. Our findings thus integrate disparate literature streams while shedding light on the impacts of social media content on tourism consumers’ travel decisions during the COVID-19 era.

The Tango of pride and envy: does others’ envy lead to the feeling of pride?

PurposeExpressions 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/approachThree 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.FindingsThe 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/implicationsThe 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 implicationsThe 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/valueTo 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.

Upward social comparison toward proactive and reactive knowledge sharing: The roles of envy and goal orientations

By integrating the social comparison and emotion literature, this study theorizes that upward social comparisons indirectly predict employees’ proactive and reactive knowledge sharing by eliciting benign and malicious envy, respectively. We further hypothesize that learning goal orientation (LGO) and performance goal orientation (PGO) moderate the indirect effects. Evidence from two studies, including data from 176 employee–supervisor dyads in various industries and an online scenario-based simulation, supported most of the hypotheses. For employees with a high LGO, upward social comparison had a significantly positive indirect effect on proactive knowledge sharing through benign envy. Conversely, for employees with a low PGO, upward social comparison exhibited a significantly negative indirect effect on reactive knowledge sharing via malicious envy. Our analysis revealed mostly positive implications of upward social comparison toward employees’ emotional reactions and knowledge sharing, emphasizing the unique role of social comparisons of abilities and performance in the workplace.

"Comparisons are Odious"? - Exploring the Dual Effect of Upward Social Comparison on Workplace Coping Behaviors of Temporary Agency Workers.

Temporary agency workers are becoming increasingly critical as a supplementary workforce within enterprises, inevitably leading upward social comparisons with permanent employees. However, existing research pays little attention to this phenomenon, which cannot provide theoretical guidance for the management of temporary agency workers. To fill this gap, our study utilizes the cognitive appraisal theory of emotion to construct a dual-path moderated mediation model, examining how upward social comparison is associated with positive and negative behaviors through two distinct forms of envy. Through the questionnaire survey, data is collected from 882 temporary agency workers in a Chinese temporary staffing firm. The results reveal that upward social comparison is associated with both benign and malicious envy, which in turn respectively relate to informal workplace learning and social undermining behavior. Additionally, psychological availability moderates the relationship between upward social comparison and envy, such that when psychological availability is higher (vs lower), the positive effect of upward social comparison on benign envy is stronger and the positive effect of upward social comparison on malicious envy is weaker. Moreover, psychological availability further moderates the indirect effect of upward social comparison on employee behavior. When psychological availability is higher (vs lower), the positive indirect effect of upward social comparison on informal workplace learning via benign envy is stronger, whereas the positive indirect effect of upward social comparison on social undermining via malicious envy is weaker. Our study enriches the theoretical research perspective of upward social comparison and provides insights for managing temporary agency workers. Our study is the first to explore the dual behavioral choices of upward social comparison of temporary agency workers and apply the cognitive appraisal theory of emotion to social comparison. The results indicate that organizations can improve the psychological availability of temporary agency workers to stimulate learning behavior and reduce social undermining behavior to achieve a win-win situation between temporary agency workers and organizations.

The Impact of Idiosyncratic Deals on Coworkers’ Interactive Behavior: The Moderating Role of Developmental Human Resource Management Practices

Organizations have come to recognize the importance of their human capital, particularly their top-performing employees, in sustaining their businesses in today’s competitive 21st-century landscape. To reward these few talented employees, organizations offer them preferential treatment in the form of idiosyncratic deals (i-deals). I-deals can effectively improve the performance of recipients, but this is not enough to demonstrate their management effectiveness. We should also measure their functional impact from the perspective of bystanders. This study seeks to explore the functional and dysfunctional impacts of i-deals on bystanders. We collected two-wave leader–employee matching data from sales teams, obtaining a sample of 108 leaders and 546 employees. The results indicate that coworkers’ perceptions of other employees’ i-deals (CPOEID) can provoke either malicious envy, which can lead to negative workplace gossip, or benign envy, which encourages feedback seeking. Developmental HRM practices not only lessen the positive effect of CPOEID on malicious and benign envy but also reduce the indirect effect of CPOEID on negative workplace gossip and feedback-seeking through malicious or benign envy. Our study, which applies social comparison theory, examines the double-edged effects of differentiated HRM practices on coworker interactive behavior. Additionally, our findings demonstrate the complementarity between differentiated and standardized HRM practices.

Benign (Malicious) Envy and Conspicuous Travel Consumption Intention: Mediating Effects of Self-Enhancement and Self-Control

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.

The Influence of Workplace Envy on Employees' Knowledge-Hiding Behavior Based on a Comparative Analysis between Generation Cohorts.

How to promote the free flow of knowledge among employees is the core factor used to improve the innovation ability and even competitive advantage of an organization. Research on how to reduce knowledge-hiding behavior and promote knowledge sharing among employees becomes the key to enhancing the technological innovation capability of enterprises and effectively responding to the VUCA environment at present. Based on social comparison theory and regulatory focus theory, this study uses 402 enterprise employees as samples to deeply study the influence mechanism of workplace envy on their knowledge-hiding behavior and compare the differences between new-generation employees and non-new-generation employees. The research results show that: (1) employee's benign envy has a significant negative effect on knowledge-hiding behavior, while malicious envy has a significant positive effect on knowledge-hiding behavior. (2) Promotion regulatory focus plays a partly mediating effect between benign envy and employee knowledge-hiding behavior, while prevention regulatory focus also plays a partly mediating effect between malicious envy and employee knowledge-hiding behavior. (3) Generation not only has a positive moderating effect on the relationship between benign envy and promotion regulatory focus but also has a positive moderating effect on the relationship between malicious envy and prevention regulatory focus. This study further found that the younger the employee generation cohort, the more substantial the effect of benign envy on the promotion regulatory focus, while the older the employee generation cohort, the more substantial the effect of malicious envy on the prevention regulatory focus.

The venom and antidotes of dispositional envy: Life History Strategy, emotion regulation, and envy links

The present research examines associations between Life History Strategy (LHS), emotion regulation and dispositional envy, as well as a mediating effect of emotion regulation on the hypothesized link between LHS and dispositional envy. These were examined in a sample of 312 adult participants by using general, malicious, and benign envy scales. Overall, slow LHS was positively related with cognitive reappraisal, and negatively with all measures that contained malicious aspects of envy. Reappraisal was positively related with benign envy and mediated a positive effect of slow LHS on benign and its negative effect on malicious envy. LHS demonstrated a marginally significant effect on expressive suppression and no significant effect on the measure of benign envy disposition. The hypothesized mediation effect of suppression on malicious disposition measures has not been confirmed. Findings were discussed within the LHS theoretical framework.

How Moral Disgust Affects Aggression: The Mediating Roles of Benign and Malicious Envy

ABSTRACT Aggression has been receiving much attention always as it has serious negative effects. Moral disgust may be a protective factor against aggression. This study explores the mediating role of malicious envy and benign envy in the relationship between moral disgust and aggression from the perspective of integrative functional theory of moral disgust. The present study recruited 1052 participants and asked them to complete Three Domains of Disgust Scale (including Moral Disgust Subscale), Benign and Malicious Envy Scale, and Aggression Scale. The results showed that: (1) benign envy acted as a mediating variable between moral disgust and aggression, and played a partial mediating role. Malicious envy acted as a mediating variable between moral disgust and aggression, and played a full mediator role. In other words, both benign envy and malicious envy played an independent mediating role between moral disgust and aggression; (2) Benign envy and malicious envy are the mediator variables at the same time, only malicious envy can play a fully mediating role between moral disgust and aggression. That’s to say, moral disgust can stably and significantly affect aggression through malicious envy. This study provided a theoretical reference to inhibit the generation of negative emotions and aggressive behaviors in social practice.

Will people travel because of envy? The influence of travel experience sharing on the post-90s WeChat users

ABSTRACT Many people share travel experience on WeChat Moments (WM). At present, most scholars have analysed the phenomenon from the perspective of destination image construction, but few of them investigate the uniqueness of the WM platform and the social factors of WM are rarely discussed. Based on the social comparison theory, this paper regards the sharing of travel experience on WM as an inducing factor of upward social comparison in WM, and explores its influence on travel intention. The role of benign envy and potential tourists’ self-presentation in this mechanism are also explored. Through experimental design and survey instruments, it is found that high-quality travel experience sharing on WM may increase potential tourists’ travel intention. In addition, high-quality travel experience sharing can induce benign envy, which will increase potential tourists’ travel intention as well. When the level of potential tourists’ self-presentation is high, the relationship between WM travel experience sharing and benign envy is stronger. The results provide theoretical insights into travel experience sharing. Practically, the potential tourists’ benign envy and self-presentation intention can be used to benefit tourism destination marketing.

Envy can be Empowered! The Impact of Benign Envy and Desiring to Gain Face on Bootleg Innovation

Envy can be Empowered! The Impact of Benign Envy and Desiring to Gain Face on Bootleg Innovation

More identified so less envious? On the links between different types of national identity and in-group envy

ABSTRACT We investigate relations between benign and malicious in-group envy and the two types of national identity (i.e. secure national identification vs. national narcissism). In two studies (Ns = 1000 and 633), we found that secure national identification was negatively linked to malicious envy, while national narcissism was positively related to both malicious and benign envy. In Study 2, we additionally analyzed how in-group envy and two types of national identity shape in-group altruism. We found that low malicious envy significantly mediated the relationship between secure identification and in-group altruism. We discuss the role of envy in shaping the links between secure (vs. narcissistic) identity and positive intragroup attitudes.

How does benign/malicious envy impact young women's subjective well-being in daily life? An investigation of intrapersonal and interpersonal pathway.

Although previous cross-sectional studies have investigated the between-person correlation between dispositional envy and subjective well-being, few longitudinal studies have explored the within-person relationships between state benign/malicious envy and subjective well-being, as well as the intrapersonal and interpersonal mechanisms involved. This study adopted a diary approach for 14 consecutive days from a sample of 167 young women to investigate the within-person associations among benign/malicious envy, self-esteem, perceived social support, and subjective well-being. The results revealed that benign and malicious envy had opposite effects on subjective well-being within individuals. Besides, the results indicated that self-esteem and perceived social support mediated the relationships between benign envy and two dimensions of subjective well-being (positive affect and life satisfaction) within individuals. Furthermore, self-esteem played a within-person mediating role in the relationships between malicious envy and three dimensions of subjective well-being, whereas perceived social support only served as a within-person mediator between malicious envy and positive affect. These findings shed light on the distinction between benign envy and malicious envy and help in comprehending the intrapersonal and interpersonal mechanisms through which the two types of envy impact subjective well-being in daily life.

Does Instagram make you speak ill of others or improve yourself? A daily diary study on the moderating role of malicious and benign envy

Social networking site users are constantly exposed to the glamorized lifestyles and over-positive profiles of other people. A great deal of investigation has shown that the use of social networking sites is linked to the experience of upward comparison, yielding both threat-oriented and challenge-oriented responses. Yet, limited research has studied what determines these differential responses. To capture the intraindividual fluctuations in online activities, a daily diary study (1,328 diary reports) was conducted to examine the associations between Instagram use and two unexplored and sharply different reactions, namely 1) gossiping, a threat-oriented reaction that aims to pull others down, and 2) self-improvement, a challenge-oriented reaction that leads one to level up. Results indicated that daily Instagram use was positively associated with both gossiping and self-improvement. Critically, these within-person associations were subjected to the cross-level moderation effects of one’s dispositional malicious and benign envy. Specifically, the link between Instagram use and gossiping was stronger among those high in dispositional malicious envy, while the link between Instagram use and self-improvement was stronger among those high in dispositional benign envy. Finally, a series of comparisons was conducted on the within-person associations and cross-level moderations to strengthen our understanding of Instagram use

Knowledge seeking or sabotage? The effect of coworker relative overqualification on employee reaction from social comparison theory

PurposeThe 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/approachThis study collected survey data from 315 employee-coworker pairs in East China at three-time points.FindingsThe 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/valueThis 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.

Unveiling the effect of benign and malicious envy toward social media influencers on brand choice

PurposeDrawing from social comparison theory, this study investigates the factors influencing benign or malicious envy toward influencers and the effects of envy on social media users' choice of endorsed or rival brands.Design/methodology/approachA sample of 453 social media users was obtained to examine the research model.FindingsHomophily and symbolism positively affect both benign and malicious envy. Credibility affects benign envy positively but malicious envy negatively. Deservingness affects malicious envy negatively but exerts no effect on benign envy. Benign envy has a greater influence on choosing brands endorsed by influencers than it does on choosing rival brands; these effects are more substantial under conditions of high perceived control. By contrast, malicious envy significantly affects the choice of purchasing rival brands; however, this effect is not influenced by perceived control.Originality/valueThis study unveils a key aspect of the endorser–follower relationship by analyzing the effect of envy toward social media influencers on followers' intention to purchase endorsed or rival brands. This study identifies the differential effects of two types of envy on brand choice.

The influence of self-disclosure micro-celebrity endorsement on subsequent brand attachment: from an emotional connection perspective

ABSTRACT 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.

Outshined by Creative Stars: A Dual-Pathway Model of Leader Reactions to Employees’ Reputation for Creativity

Establishing a reputation for creativity can endow employees with considerable social advantages as others look to them as a source of assistance, inspiration, and guidance. Yet, as leaders often expect access to certain privileges and advantages based on their hierarchical positions, such employees may signal a discrepancy with leaders’ own expected superiority. Drawing from the social functional view of emotions, we provide a novel extension to the creativity literature by developing and testing a dual-path model of leaders’ emotional and behavioral reactions to their employees’ reputation for creativity. Results from a survey study of 257 leader–employee dyads at a large Chinese automobile company supported our predictions that the presence of an employee reputed for their creativity fostered leaders’ feelings of envy and motivated corresponding remedial actions. Specifically, we found that, conditional on leaders’ beliefs in their own ability to be creative (i.e., creative self-efficacy), employee reputation for creativity either triggered leaders’ dysfunctional resistance toward the employee via leaders’ malicious envy, or led to leaders’ creativity help-seeking from the employee via leaders’ benign envy. We discuss how our results contribute to the extant literature.

How do social media tourist images influence destination attitudes? Effects of social comparison and envy

ABSTRACT This study focused on the impact of attractive travel selfies on potential travelers, especially when they have a positive self presentation intention. The study is based on social comparison theory and found that positive self presentation intentions motivate people to engage in upward body comparisons. If the upward body comparison led to self-image concerns among potential travelers, their perceptions of both benign and malicious envy were enhanced. When self-image concerns were absent, only benign envy perceptions were increased. Our research confirms that the physical attractiveness of tourists’ selfies on social media has an impact on destination marketing effectiveness.

Bidirectional relations between altruistic tendency and benign/malicious envy among adolescents: A longitudinal study and weekly diary study.

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.