Discover

'Envy' is an emotion that "occurs when a person lacks another’s superior quality, achievement, or possession and desires it."Journal of Personality and Social Psychology'', 64, 906-920. They also feel that it is not possible (or not easy) for them to have what they want. Otherwise they would simply go get what the other person had, and they would be satisfied.
Envy is one of the seven deadly sins.
At the core of envy seems to be an upward social comparison that threatens a person's self-esteem: another person has something that the envier considers to be important to have. A comparison is often rooted in the envier feeling low self-confidence, and they feel that they need to be or have the same things as others. If they don't have it, or they can't have it, they feel envy. This can be seen with money and power struggles.
However, what is envied could also be something that is only of personal importance to the envier, even if what the other person has is of little significance in his or her society, or even seen as a sign of inferior status. 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 him or her who had the desired object.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology'', 47, 780-792.
The word jealous is often used to describe an envious state. In its correct usage, jealousy is the fear of losing something to another person (a loved one in the prototypical form), while envy is the pain or frustration caused by another person having something that one does not have oneself.
In some cultures, envy is often associated with the color green, as in "green with envy". The phrase "green-eyed monster" refers to an individual whose current actions appear motivated by envy. This is based on a line from Shakespeare's ''Othello''. Shakespeare mentions it also in ''The Merchant of Venice'' when Portia states: "How all the other passions fleet to air, as doubful thoughts and rash embraced despair and shuddering fear and green-eyed jealousy!"

Contents

External links

References

External links

★ Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry

References