Dispositional Envy Research Articles

Does insecurity lead to Envy? The longitudinal interplay between dispositional envy and Self-Esteem

Despite evidence of a close, cross-sectional association between dispositional envy and low self-esteem, there is no research on the mutual development of these two constructs across time. The aim of the present research was to systematically investigate correlated change and prospective effects between dispositional envy and self-esteem at the global level and within comparison domains. In two preregistered longitudinal studies across 6 years (Ntotal > 7,000 adult participants), change in dispositional envy was negatively correlated with concurrent self-esteem change at the global level and within domains. Moreover, we found preliminary evidence that self-esteem predicted later change in dispositional envy but not vice versa. Our findings illustrate that the development of dispositional envy is closely intertwined with self-esteem development.

How does witnessing coworker ostracism differentially elicit victim-directed help and enacted ostracism: The mediating roles of compassion and schadenfreude, moderated by dispositional envy

This study examines the differential effects of observed ostracism on observers’ victim-directed helping behaviors and their own enactment of ostracism, as informed by their dispositional envy. In particular, we examined two distinctive paths that explain the observers’ congruent (compassion) and incongruent (schadenfreude) emotional responses toward victims. Utilizing a four-wave, multi-source survey dataset comprising 306 employees from various organizations in Pakistan, our findings reveal that observed ostracism elicits feelings of compassion in employees with a low dispositional envy, who then exhibit greater victim-directed helping behaviors. By contrast, employees with a high dispositional envy experience schadenfreude when observing ostracism, prompting them to engage in further victim-directed ostracism themselves. Our findings provide important insights into the catalytic role of dispositional envy in determining emotions that explains why the observation of a coworker’s social exclusion prompts a differential behavioral response.

The Social Comparison Rumination Scale: Development, Psychometric Properties, and Associations With Perfectionism, Narcissism, Burnout, and Distress.

In the current article, we describe the development and validation of the Social Comparison Rumination Scale. This measured was developed as a supplement to existing social comparison measures and to enable us to determine its potential relevance to perfectionism and other personality constructs. The Social Comparison Rumination Scale (SCRS) is a six-item inventory assessing the extent to which an individual is cognitively preoccupied and thinking repetitively about social comparison outcomes and information. Three studies with five samples of university students are described. Psychometric analyses established the SCRS consists of one factor assessed with high internal consistency and the measure is reliable and valid. Analyses showed that elevated levels of social comparison rumination are associated with trait perfectionism, perfectionistic automatic thoughts, perfectionistic self-presentation, ruminative brooding, burnout, depression, and fear of negative evaluation. Links were also established between social comparison rumination and both narcissism and dispositional envy. Overall, our findings support the further use of the SCRS and highlight the tendency of many people to think in deleterious ways about social comparisons long after the actual comparisons have taken place. We discuss social comparison rumination within the context of concerns about excessive social media use and young people being exposed to seemingly perfect lives that became a vexing cognitive preoccupation.

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 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.

Women's Romantic Jealousy Predicts Risky Appearance Enhancement Effort.

Human appearance enhancement effort has recently been considered from an evolutionary perspective as an adaptive and sexually dimorphic strategy for effective female intrasexual and intersexual competition. Most writing and research on the topic to date has focused on appearance enhancement as a means of mate attraction, with relatively less research examining its role in mate retention. The present study considered whether romantic jealousy, as a negative emotion experienced in response to perceived threat to a desired relationship, predicts costly and/or risky appearance enhancement independent of the closely related emotion of envy. In a sample of 189 undergraduate women, results showed that romantic jealousy and dispositional envy were positively correlated with one another. Results further demonstrated that romantic jealousy predicted women's positive attitude toward cosmetic surgery, willingness to use a one-week free tanning membership, willingness to use a risky diet pill, and intent on spending a greater proportion of their income on appearance enhancement, but not intended use of facial cosmetics. Results held independent of participants' dispositional envy, suggesting that romantic jealousy is a unique predictor of women's efforts at enhancing their physical appearance, which could extend into costly and physically risky mate retention efforts.

Impact of Idiosyncratic Deals on Creative Performance Through the Mediating Role of Thriving and Dispositional Envy and Moderating Role of Cyber Loafing

This study aims to investigate the mechanism between Idiosyncratic deals and creative performance by considering employee thriving and dispositional envy as mediating variables and cyber loafing as moderating variable. COVID-19 disease has significantly impacted the behavior of nurses. To date, no study is conducted examining the provision of Idiosyncratic deals to nurses which can lead to creative performance to cope the COVID-19 pandemic at an extent.
 Data were collected from 422 nurses and their immediate supervisors working in Pakistani hospitals through survey questionnaires and analyzed through statistical package for social sciences (SPSS). Results reveal that nurses with recipient of Idiosyncratic deals positively influences the thriving while negatively influences the dispositional envy. And cyber loafing moderates their associations as well. In conclusion the top management should provide the Idiosyncratic deals to nurses as it positively contributes to the development of positive working cultural environment to deal the patients. As the need about the change of behavior of general public has been discussed but a new paradigm about the change of behavior of nurses needs to be examined in coping health challenges. This research, thus, adds to the debate about the coping COVID-19 disease as well from a behavioral perspective by contributing to a growing body of knowledge on the implications of nursing management.

Big Five personality traits and envy: The mediating role of emotional intelligence

Envy is a typical negative social emotion that has negative effects on the physical and mental health of individuals. In this study we examined the relationship between the Big Five personality traits and envy, and the mediating role of emotional intelligence in these associations. Participants were 811 university students in China who completed the Revised NEO Personality Inventory, the Wong and Law Emotional Intelligence Scale, and the Dispositional Envy Scale. Mediation analysis results showed that emotional intelligence played a partial mediating role in the relationships between neuroticism and envy and between extraversion and envy, and played a complete mediating role in the relationships between agreeableness and envy, between openness and envy, and between conscientiousness and envy. We have found evidence for the personality basis of envy and provided insight into the underlying mechanisms between personality and envy.

Stability and change in dispositional envy: Longitudinal evidence on envy as a stable trait

Dispositional envy has been conceptualized as an emotional trait that varies across comparison domains (e.g., attraction, competence, wealth). Despite its prevalence and potentially detrimental effects, little is known about stability and change in dispositional envy across time due to a lack of longitudinal data. The goal of the present research was to close this gap by investigating stability and developmental change in dispositional envy over time. In a preregistered longitudinal study across 6 years, we analyzed data from N = 1229 German participants ( n = 510–634 per wave) with a mean age of 47.0 years at intake ( SD = 12.4, range 18–88). Results from latent factor models revealed that both global and domain-specific dispositional envy were stable across 6 years in terms of their rank order and mean levels, with stability coefficients similar to those of other trait measures reported in literature. Moreover, a substantial amount of variance in global and domain-specific dispositional envy was accounted for by a stable trait factor. Results thus provide evidence for a stable disposition toward the experience of envy both at the global level and within specific envy domains. The present findings have important theoretical and practical implications for the stability and development of dispositional envy in adulthood and advance the understanding of emotional traits in general.

The role of dispositional envy, state envy, and social comparisons in predicting learning outcomes

Limited studies to date have investigated how objectively assessed learning outcomes are associated with dispositional malicious and benign envy, together with state malicious and benign envy. The current experimental study modeled an online learning environment. Participants (N = 120) received one of three types of visual feedback showing their progress throughout learning task. The feedback showed varying upward social comparison information, or lack thereof, to arouse state malicious and benign envy. The findings revealed that dispositional malicious and benign envy had direct effects on learning outcomes. State malicious envy, however, had no effect on learning, and state benign envy did not pass the manipulation check. The social comparison with an attainable standard requiring less effort had a total effect on learning outcomes but no indirect effect, implying that there were potentially unmeasured factors (e.g., affective or motivational) arising from the intervention. The study offers a unique contribution to the literature with rare empirical evidence supporting the association between dispositional envy (malicious and benign) and objectively assessed cognitive performance. The study also suggests practical guidelines to facilitate constructive social comparison effects, while limiting the potential of envy or other affective or motivational consequences that may impinge upon learning.

I Feel Compassion for You but Not All the Time: The Aftermaths of Observed Ostracism

This study focused on the aftermaths of observed ostracism with boundary conditions of dispositional envy. We examined two distinctive paths, which produce the observer's prosocial congruent (compassion) and incongruent emotions (schadenfreude) against the Vitim of ostracism. Time lagged data (N= 306) were collected from the employees working in Pakistan's various service sectors. The study's findings indicated that observed ostracism generates congruent and incongruent emotional reactions among the observers. Employees' feelings of compassion engage in the higher organizational citizenship behaviour, whereas employees with schadenfreude tend to enact ostracism with the victim. Both paths depend on boundary conditions of dispositional envy. The observers with high dispositional envy lead toward schadenfreude, Whereas observers with low dispositional envy lead toward compassion with the victim of ostracism.

Resilience in the Ranks: Trait Mindfulness and Self-Compassion Buffer the Deleterious Effects of Envy on Mental Health Symptoms among Public Safety Personnel.

Public safety personnel (PSP) face frequent stressors that increase their risk of developing symptoms of depression and anxiety. In addition to being exposed to potentially traumatic events, PSP trainees may face a compounded risk of developing mental health symptoms, as their training environments are conducive to social comparisons and the resultant painful emotion of envy. Envy is associated with numerous negative health and occupational outcomes. Fortunately, there are several individual difference factors associated with increased emotional regulation, and such factors may offer resilience against the damaging mental health effects of envy. In this study, we examined the interplay between dispositional mindfulness, self-compassion, and dispositional envy in predicting job satisfaction, stress, experience of positive and negative emotions, subjective resilience, and symptoms of depression and anxiety in a sample of police trainees (n = 104). A substantial minority of trainees reported clinically significant symptoms of depression (n = 19:18.3%) and anxiety (n = 24:23.1%) in accordance with the cut-off scores on screening measures. Consistent with hypotheses, dispositional envy was associated with lower job satisfaction, greater stress, and greater anxiety and depression. Furthermore, envy was associated with higher negative emotions, lower positive emotions, and lower subjective resilience. Dispositional mindfulness and self-compassion were associated with greater job satisfaction, lower stress, and reduced symptoms of depression and anxiety. Moreover, mindfulness and self-compassion were both associated with lower negative emotions, higher positive emotions, and subjective resilience. The associations between envy and the relevant job and mental health outcomes were significantly diminished after controlling for mindfulness and self-compassion. This suggests that these protective traits may serve as transdiagnostic buffers to the effects of envy on mental health. The results of this study confirmed the damaging effects of envy and suggested the potential remediation of these effects through the cultivation of mindfulness and self-compassion.

External validity of the benign and malicious envy scale with Japanese undergraduate student and non-student samples

This study examined the validity of the Japanese version of the Benign and Malicious Envy Scale (BeMaS) with Japanese undergraduate student and non-student samples. Previous studies have identified two types of envy, benign and malicious, that motivate different types of behavior. However, the validity of the BeMaS, developed to measure two types of dispositional envy, has not been adequately confirmed in East Asian countries. Furthermore, it is unclear whether the two-factor structure of BeMaS is identical across various samples. Thus, in this study, we specified the Japanese words describing envy, namely, urayamashii or netamashii, suitable for the Japanese BeMaS. Additionally, we tested the validity of the scale’s two-factor model across undergraduate students and non-student samples. The questionnaire survey results showed that the validity of BeMaS’s two-factor structural model was confirmed in both samples and the goodness of fit was better for urayamashii than for netamashii. Moreover, measurement invariance across the two samples was established in configural and metric models.

Contours of the envious personality: Reassessing the capacity of the Big Five and the Dark Triad personality traits in predicting dispositional envy

Contours of the envious personality: Reassessing the capacity of the Big Five and the Dark Triad personality traits in predicting dispositional envy

The relationship between mindfulness and envy: The mediating role of emotional intelligence.

Envy is a mixed negative emotion that is characterized by feelings of hostility, inferiority, resentment, and depression. It has been found that mindfulness is negatively associated with envy. This paper aimed to explore the interaction between mindfulness and envy by referring to the mindful emotion regulation model, and it also examines the mediation of emotional intelligence. Six hundred and seventy-six participants (182 men and 494 women) completed the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale, the Dispositional Envy Scale, and the Wong Law Emotional Intelligence Scale. Results suggest that mindfulness is significantly and negatively correlated with envy. Meanwhile, a multiple mediation analysis indicated that regulation of emotion and use of emotion partially mediate the impact of mindfulness on envy. The current study not only provides a theoretical basis for possible mechanisms underlying the inhibition of envy, but also provides valuable guidance for developing mindfulness-based intervention programs aiming at reducing the negative effects of envy.

Perfectionism, Self Compassion, Fear of Negative Evaluation and Dispositional Envy among Performing Artists

It’s needless to say how passionate people in the creative fields are about their respective projects. Yet, there is a reality beyond the glamour, behind the served dish. Incessant practice, guilt on the failure to be able to do so, self-criticism, trials and errors, crests -troughs of productivity, self-doubt, need for proper validation, insecurities, comparison stress and creative blockages are an active part of the lives of artists. Perfectionism has been unduly romanticised for years together but artists have been seen to suffer its ill effects. With stiff competition, harsh criticism and the pressure to create, it is hard to be compassionate towards oneself. This may even stimulate performance anxiety and envy. The research aims to study Perfectionism, Self-Compassion, Fear of Negative Evaluation and Dispositional Envy among Performing Artists, for the purpose of which a sample of 35 artists in the age range of 20-40 years was taken. Standardised measures of the aforementioned variables were administered to the respondents. Findings of the study revealed a significant positive relationship between rigid perfectionism and fear of negative evaluation, self-critical perfectionism and fear of negative evaluation, benign envy and rigid perfectionism and benign envy and self-critical perfectionism. A significant negative relationship was revealed between rigid perfectionism and self-compassion, self-critical perfectionism and self-compassion and fear of negative evaluation and self-compassion. With these findings, we can conclude that following one’s heart takes a toll and comes with responsibility too. There’s a need for programmes to help artists overcome these mental obstacles and enhance their productivity.

How gratitude inhibits envy: From the perspective of positive psychology.

With the development of positive psychology, gratitude, as a typical positive emotion, has attracted significant attention. Gratitude has a profoundly positive effect on cultivating people's positive traits, and negative emotions affect many aspects of people's daily lives. Many studies have explored the inhibiting effect of gratitude on negative emotions. In this study, based on the coping theory and the broaden-and-build theory of positive emotion, we used scenario method to discuss the inhibiting effect of trait gratitude and state gratitude on a common and typical negative emotion: situational envy. We randomly recruited 326 undergraduate students as participants and asked them to complete the Gratitude Questionnaire, Dispositional Envy Scale, state gratitude materials, and situational envy materials. Our results showed that (1) state gratitude inhibits situational envy and (2) state gratitude plays a partial mediating role between trait gratitude and situational envy. This article suggests educational field for future school should devote more attention to gratitude, and lay a good foundation for students' future development in society. Taken together, these results verify the positive role of gratitude, help to expand relevant theories about inhibiting envy, and provide a theoretical reference for cultivating people's positive traits and countering negative emotions.

Who supports redistribution? Replicating and refining effects of compassion, malicious envy, and self-interest

Abstract Debate over wealth redistribution plays a prominent role in society, but the causes of differences in support for redistribution remain contested. A recent three-person two-situation model suggests these differences are shaped by evolved motivational systems of self-interest, compassion, and dispositional envy. We conducted a close replication testing this prediction, all subjects were British, recruited from an online subject pool. Study 1 (N = 206) confirmed the roles of self-interest (β = 0.20) and compassion for others (β = 0.37), as well as a predicted null effect of procedural fairness. Dispositional envy was non-significant (β = 0.06). In study 2 (N = 304), we tested whether it was better to conceptualize envy as being two separate emotions, benign envy and malicious envy. A significant effect of malicious envy was found (β = 0.13) and no significant effect of benign envy (β = −0.06). Study 3 (N = 501) closely replicated this improved model, confirming significant effects of compassion (β = 0.40), self-interest (β = 0.21), and malicious envy (β = 0.15), accounting for one third of variance in support for redistribution. These results support the role of evolved motivational systems to explain and improve important aspects of contemporary economic redistribution.

Effects of Envy on Depression: The Mediating Roles of Psychological Resilience and Social Support.

ObjectiveEnvy, as a stable personality trait, can affect individuals’ mental health. Specifically, previous studies have found that envy can lead to depression; however, the mechanism by which envy affects depression is still unclear. Therefore, based on the resilience framework, we used structural equation modeling to explore the mediating roles that social support and psychological resilience play between envy and depression. MethodsChinese college students (n=680) were recruited to complete four scales: the Dispositional Envy Scale (DES), the Symptom Checklist 90-Depression Subscale (SCL-90-DS), the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC), and the Perceived Social Support Scale (PSSS). ResultsThe results confirmed that both social support and psychological resilience are significant mediators between envy and depression. Furthermore, social support plays a significant mediating role between envy and psychological resilience, and psychological resilience plays a significant mediating role between social support and depression. Specifically, the results indicated that envy not only directly increases the likelihood of developing depression, but also indirectly increases the likelihood of developing depression by affecting psychological resilience through negatively influencing social support. ConclusionThis study provides a theoretical basis for enhancing psychological resilience and social support in order to ameliorate adverse effects of envy on depression.

Social class and envy among Chinese undergraduates: Victim justice sensitivity as a mediator

We examined the relationship between social class and envy, and the role of victim justice sensitivity in this relationship among a group of 1,405 Chinese undergraduates. The students completed measures of subjective social class, victim justice sensitivity, and dispositional envy. The results show that a lower social class was significantly and negatively related to envy and victim justice sensitivity, whereas victim justice sensitivity was significantly and positively related to envy. As predicted, a lower social class was very closely correlated with envy. In addition, individuals with a lower (vs. higher) social class had a greater tendency toward victim justice sensitivity, which, in turn, increased their envy. Overall, our results advance scholarly research on the psychology of social hierarchy by clarifying the relationship between social class and the negative emotion of envy.