Successful people are nicer to those who are jealous of them, psychologists have found.
Previous research found jealousy could be divided into benign and malicious envy. Those with benign envy were motivated to improve themselves, to do better so they could be more like the person they envied. However, those with malicious envy wanted to bring the more successful person down.
The Dutch researchers then set out to question the effect on the target of the envy.
Niels van de Ven of Tilburg University said: “In anthropology, they say if you are envied, you might act more socially because you try to appease those envious people.” He cited as an example the fisherman who shared his bigger catch.
In lab experiments a group of people were made to feel as if they would be maliciously envied by being told they would receive an award of E5.
Sometimes the prize was deserved and was based on the score they were told they had earned on a quiz. But sometimes it was not based on their score at all. The researchers thought that the deserved prize would lead to benign envy, while the undeserved prize would lead to malicious envy.
Then the volunteer was asked to give time-consuming advice to a potentially envious person.
People who had reason to think they would be the target of malicious envy were more likely to take the time to give advice than targets of benign envy.
In another experiment, an experimenter dropped a number of erasers on the floor as the volunteer was leaving. Those who thought they would be maliciously envied were more likely to help him pick them up.
He said: “This sort of serves a useful group function. We all think better of people who share with others but that’s not something we are inclined to do when we are better off.
“This fear of envy can encourage us to behave in ways that improve the social interactions of the group.”
The findings were published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. – Daily Mail