Appraisal patterns of envy and related emotions

Envy is a frustrating emotion that arises from upward social comparison. Two studies investigated the appraisals that distinguish benign envy (aimed at improving one’s own situation) from malicious envy (aimed at pulling down the superior other). Study 1 found that appraisals of deservingness and control potential differentiated both types of envy. We manipulated these appraisals in Study 2 and found that while both did not influence the intensity of envy, they did determine the type of envy that resulted. The more a situation was appraised as undeserved, the more participants experienced malicious envy. Benign envy was experienced more when the situation was not undeserved, and the most when the situation was appraised as both deserved and controllable. The current research also clarifies how the types of envy differ from the related emotions admiration and resentment.

[1]  Richard H. Smith.  Assimilative and Contrastive Emotional Reactions to Upward and Downward Social Comparisons , 2000 .

[2]  Jerry Suls,et al.  Handbook of social comparison : theory and research , 2000 .

[3]  Richard H. Smith,et al.  Subjective Injustice and Inferiority as Predictors of Hostile and Depressive Feelings in Envy , 1994 .

[4]  Francisco Alvarez-Cuadrado,et al.  Envy and Inequality , 2012 .

[5]  L. Wheeler,et al.  Review of personality and social psychology , 1980 .

[6]  N. Feather,et al.  Envy, Resentment, Schadenfreude, and Sympathy: Reactions to Deserved and Undeserved Achievement and Subsequent Failure , 2002 .

[7]  Sung Hee Kim,et al.  Envy and Jealousy , 1988, Personality & social psychology bulletin.

[8]  B. Parkinson,et al.  Appraisal as a cause of emotion , 1992 .

[9]  R. H. Smith,et al.  Distinguishing the experiences of envy and jealousy. , 1993, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[10]  Simon S. K. Lam,et al.  Comparing lots before and after: Promotion rejectees' invidious reactions to promotees , 2004 .

[11]  Ira J. Roseman.  Cognitive determinants of emotions. , 1983 .

[12]  Marcel Zeelenberg,et al.  Leveling up and down: the experiences of benign and malicious envy. , 2009, Emotion.

[13]  J. Stainer,et al.  The Emotions , 1882, Nature.

[14]  Letitia Anne Peplau,et al.  Who believes in a just world , 1975 .

[15]  Andrew Ortony,et al.  The Cognitive Structure of Emotions , 1988 .

[16]  Helmut Schoeck,et al.  Envy: a theory of social behaviour , 1969 .

[17]  P. Salovey.  The psychology of jealousy and envy , 1993 .

[18]  W. G. Parrott,et al.  The emotional experience of envy and jealousy. , 1991 .

[19]  Jan Brogger,et al.  The Anatomy of Envy: A Study in Symbolic Behavior [and Comments and Reply] , 1972, Current Anthropology.

[20]  Marcel Zeelenberg,et al.  On emotion specificity in decision making: Why feeling is for doing , 2008, Judgment and Decision Making.

[21]  N. Feather,et al.  Differentiating emotions in relation to deserved or undeserved outcomes: A retrospective study of real-life events , 2009 .

[22]  N. Feather,et al.  Deservingness and emotions: Applying the structural model of deservingness to the analysis of affective reactions to outcomes , 2006 .

[23]  Ira J. Roseman.  Cognitive determinants of emotion: A structural theory. , 1984 .

[24]  Sung Hee Kim,et al.  Comprehending envy. , 2007, Psychological bulletin.

[25]  K. Scherer,et al.  Appraisal processes in emotion: Theory, methods, research. , 2001 .

[26]  P. Duttweiler,et al.  The Internal Control Index: A Newly Developed Measure of Locus of Control , 1984 .

[27]  Ira J. Roseman.  Appraisal Determinants of Emotions: Constructing a More Accurate and Comprehensive Theory , 1996 .

[28]  N. Feather.  Distinguishing between deservingness and entitlement: earned outcomes versus lawful outcomes , 2003 .

[29]  Robert E. Anderson.  Envy and jealousy. , 1987, American journal of psychotherapy.

[30]  C. Parks,et al.  The Effects of Envy on Reciprocation in a Social Dilemma , 2002 .

[31]  N. Frijda.  The place of appraisal in emotion , 1993 .

[32]  R. Pieters,et al.  Warding Off the Evil Eye , 2010, Psychological science.

[33]  A. Ben-Ze'ev.  Are Envy, Anger, and Resentment Moral Emotions? , 2002 .

[34]  T. A. Rosenwasser.  Envy. A Theory of Social Behavior , 2007 .

[35]  Ira J. Roseman,et al.  Appraisals of emotion-eliciting events: Testing a theory of discrete emotions. , 1990 .

[36]  Peter Salovey,et al.  Some antecedents and consequences of social-comparison jealousy , 1984 .

[37]  Craig A. Smith,et al.  Patterns of cognitive appraisal in emotion. , 1985, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[38]  M. Zeelenberg,et al.  Investigating the Appraisal Patterns of Regret and Disappointment , 2002 .

[39]  Cristiano Castelfranchi,et al.  The envious mind , 2007 .

[40]  Richard H. Smith.  Envy and the sense of injustice. , 1991 .

[41]  Jonathan Haidt,et al.  Witnessing excellence in action: the ‘other-praising’ emotions of elevation, gratitude, and admiration , 2009, The journal of positive psychology.

[42]  W. Keith Campbell,et al.  Psychological Entitlement: Interpersonal Consequences and Validation of a Self-Report Measure , 2004, Journal of personality assessment.

[43]  R. Carlson,et al.  Review of Personality and Social Psychology: Emotions, Relationships, and Health. , 1986 .

[44]  R. Pieters,et al.  The Envy Premium in Product Evaluation , 2011 .

[45]  B. Weiner.  An attributional theory of achievement motivation and emotion. , 1985, Psychological review.

[46]  Richard H. Smith.  Envy and Its Transmutations. , 2004 .

[47]  Marcel Zeelenberg,et al.  Why Envy Outperforms Admiration , 2011, Personality & social psychology bulletin.

[48]  L. Tiedens,et al.  The Social Life of Emotions: THE INTERPERSONAL CONTEXT , 2004 .

[49]  R. Lazarus.  Progress on a cognitive-motivational-relational theory of emotion. , 1991, The American psychologist.

[50]  N. Feather.  Judgments of Deservingness: Studies in the Psychology of Justice and Achievement , 1999, Personality and social psychology review : an official journal of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc.