An Emotion Divided

Abstract

The recent surge in envy research has brought with it a line of inquiry differentiating between “benign” and “malicious” envy. “Benign” envy involves the motivation to improve the self, leading to socially desirable reactions. “Malicious” envy involves the motivation to harm the envied other, leading to socially undesirable reactions. We suggest that studying “benign” and “malicious” envy involves confounding envy with its outcomes, which causes confusion and impairs the understanding of envy. We discuss the roots of this differentiation, the theoretical and methodological challenges it involves, and its negative ramifications for envy research. We provide theory and findings showing that envy, conceptualized and measured as a unitary construct, can lead to a wide range of reactions, both socially desirable and undesirable, depending on personal and situational moderators. Therefore, we believe the distinction between “benign” and “malicious” envy is unwarranted and advocate for the use of envy as a unitary construct.

Social comparison and perceived envy‐motivated communication involving travel nurses: A qualitative study

“…Permanent nurses may help temporary nurses to get oriented because ‘they're obviously more familiar with the policies … [but] there's also pride in [permanent] nurses because it's their environment (Robert)’. Although benign envy can evoke painful feelings (Lange, Weidman, et al, ), individuals who experience benign envy can still extend help and support to envied individuals as prosocial behaviour (Cohen‐Charash & Larson, ; Lange & Crusius, ; Puranik et al, ; Van de Ven et al, ). Thus, the presence of prosocial behaviour does not necessarily indicate the absence of envious sentiments.…”

“…And that's a good thing’. Praises are a form of prosocial behaviour that one may express due to benign envy (Cohen‐Charash & Larson, ).…”

“…Benign envy appears less intuitive because the extending of social support and help can be acts of reciprocity and gratitude (Algoe et al, ; Simpson et al, ). Yet, the presence of prosocial behaviour does not necessarily indicate the absence of envious sentiments because benign envy motivates reciprocity as envious individuals extend help to envied individuals (Cohen‐Charash & Larson, ; Lange & Crusius, ; Van de Ven et al, ). Since envy is an emotion that triggers behaviour (Lange & Crusius, ), envy and prosocial behaviour are not mutually exclusive.…”

“…Social comparison can result in various emotions such as envy (Lange & Crusius, 2015), which has two dominant subtypes (Cohen-Charash & Larson, 2017;Lange, Weidman, & Crusius, 2018). Malicious envy transpires when envious individuals denigrate or undermine envied individuals (Lange, Weidman, et al, 2018;Puranik, Koopman, Vough, & Gamache, 2019); those passive-aggressive behaviours include feigning helplessness and obstructing progress (Ferrara-Love, 1998).…”

“…Envious individuals might spread rumours or withhold information so that they alleviate their sense of inferiority while undermining envied individuals (Reh, Tröster, & Van Quaquebeke, 2018) to make envied individuals less successful (Puranik et al, 2019). Paradoxically, envy can also take a benign form: this counterintuitive variation of envy includes prosocial behaviour such as doing favours for and befriending envied individuals because benign envy motivates envious individuals to accomplish self-improvement goals (Cohen-Charash & Larson, 2017;Lange & Crusius, 2015;Puranik et al, 2019;Van de Ven, Zeelenberg, & Pieters, 2011).…”