Benign envy and influencer marketing

In a commercial world dominated by social media, research in the International Journal of Internet Marketing and Advertising reveals a mysterious, invisible force that lurks behind many a purchase decision when social media ...

Using envy as a marketing tool can backfire

For decades, marketers have used envy to sell, attempting to cash in on consumers' desire to want what others have. But does it actually work?

Envy pushes job seekers to fake their resumes

Job seekers who stay in the search longer or see their peers getting hired may falsify their résumés, according to new research from the University at Buffalo School of Management.

Researchers look workplace envy right in its green eyes

Envy can be a profound discomfort when another person gets what you want, but in the workplace it can also hinder an organization's productivity. In order to better understand the complexities of this silent constraint among ...

Resume fraud linked to job search envy

Unemployed job-seekers can be motivated to embellish their resumes when they are envious of peers, according to a study published in the Academy of Management Journal.

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Envy

Envy (also called invidiousness) is best defined as a resentful emotion that "occurs when a person lacks another's (perceived) superior quality, achievement, or possession and either desires it or wishes that the other lacked it."

Envy can also derive from a sense of low self-esteem that results from an upward social comparison threatening a person's self image: another person has something that the envier considers to be important to have. If the other person is perceived to be similar to the envier, the aroused envy will be particularly intense, because it signals to the envier that it just as well could have been he or she who had the desired object.

Bertrand Russell said envy was one of the most potent causes of unhappiness. It is a universal and most unfortunate aspect of human nature because not only is the envious person rendered unhappy by his envy, but also wishes to inflict misfortune on others. Although envy is generally seen as something negative, Russell also believed that envy was a driving force behind the movement towards democracy and must be endured to achieve a more just social system. However, psychologists have recently suggested that there may be two types of envy: malicious envy and benign envy - benign envy being proposed as a type of positive motivational force.

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