The Role of Subjective and Objective Social Status in the Generation of Envy

Frontiers in Psychology

article

Henrietta Bolló¹  Dzsenifer Roxána Háger⁴  Manuel Galvan⁵  Gábor Orosz⁶ 

[1] Doctoral School of Psychology, Eötvös Loránd University;Institute of Psychology, ELTE Eötvös Loránd University;Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology, Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Hungarian Academy of Sciences;Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Institute of Psychology, Pázmány Péter Catholic University;Department of Psychology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, United States;ULR 7369 - URePSSS - Unité de Recherche Pluridisciplinaire Sport Santé Société

关键词: malicious envy;    benign envy;    subjective social status;    objective social status;    deservingness;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpsyg.2020.513495

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

Envy is a negative emotion experienced in response to another person’s higher status. However, little is known about the composition of its most important element: status. The present research investigates the two main forms of social status (objective and subjective) in the generation of envy. In Study 1, participants recounted real-life situations when they felt envious; in Study 2 we examined whether the effect was the same in a controlled situation. We consistently found that those who were the most respected in the eyes of others were envied more than the richest ones. Furthermore, perceived deservingness of the superior other’s success differentiated between benign and malicious envy. Although previous studies focused on material comparisons when investigating envy, our results indicate that envy is rather a subjective social status related emotion. Not material, but social advantage of the superior other causes the most painful envy and future studies should put more emphasis on this type of social comparison in envy research.

【 授权许可】

CC BY