The Effects Of Envy Toward The Envied And Self Behavioral Tendencies And Its Mechanism

Envy, one of the most common emotions, could be found in the individuals who arediscontent and greedy for others’ achievement. Due to the envier’s destructive tendencies toharm the envied, envy usually appears as hostile emotion and trigger aggressive behavior. Previousstudies on envy mainly explored the vicious side, focused on the enviers’ destructive impactstoward the envied. The impact on the enviers themselves which envy exert is far more complete.However, researchers recently put forward that the enviers have constructive impacts towardthemselves without empirical support. Therefore, on the basis of the former studies, this study firstinvestigated the enviers’ destructive impacts on the envied and the enviers’ constructive impacts onthemselves. Second, since envy is a setback experience when people face upward socialcomparison, the study explored the reasons why the envier has two different behavioral tendenciesbased on social comparison research findings. In other words, the mediating and moderating effectsof the envy toward the envied and self behavioral tendencies need further exploration.This paper is divided into three parts to explore the effects of envy toward the envied and selfbehavioral tendencies and its mechanism, specific studies are as follows:The first study used a questionnaire to explore whether the envier has destructive behavioraltendencies toward the envied and whether the envier has constructive behavioral tendencies towardhimself/herself. The results indicate that envy would not only lead people to make destructivebehavioral tendencies toward the envied, but also have a tendency toward self-generatedconstructive behavior.The second research explored whether the mediating effect of self-evaluation exists when theenvier makes destructive behavioral tendencies to the envied and when the envier makesconstructive behavioral tendencies to himself/herself. The results indicate that the mediating effectof self-evaluation does exist when the envier makes destructive behavioral tendencies to the enviedor make constructive behavioral tendencies to himself/herself.The third study explored whether a moderating effect of self-esteem exists when the enviermakes destructive behavioral tendencies to the envied and makes constructive behavioral tendencies to himself/herself. The results indicate that no moderating effect of self-esteem could befound when the envier makes destructive behavioral tendencies to the envied and makesconstructive behavioral tendencies to himself/herself. But the one who has low self-esteem havehigher destructive behavioral tendencies to the envied and have lower constructive behavioraltendencies to themselves than the high self-esteem individuals.