Envy And Sharing And Their Impact On Distribution Decision-making

Envy is defined as a complex emotion arised by upward social comparison in which advantages relative to himself or herself are possessed by superior others.Recently,studies regarding envy extended from traditional personality trait area to cognitive processes,work environment,social media and intergroup relation area.Empirical study has shown that fear of being envied may prompt more pro-social behaviors by the envied.And evidence has also shown that expectation of the superior others’ will of sharing may alter the envy level of the envied.Therefore,this research aims at investigating the impact of envy on one’s distribution decision-making,and further conforming whether superior others’ sharing gesture can alleviate the envy level of the envied.In this paper,We investigate the impact of envy priming on one’s donation decision-making using the classical money donation decision-making paradigm,especially under the envy condition in which one need to choose between equal money(self 10 : others 10)and unequal money(self 10 : others 20).Besides,we also tempt to explore whether sharing can alleviate the envy emotion shown by the decisions they make.Study 1 recruited 86 graduate students and they were randomly assigned to envy group(45 students)and control group(41 students).They were asked to recall a scene in order to elicit special emotion.After that,they accomplished money distribution decision task,then we collected the results they completed under three conditions.The results of study 1 suggest that participants are more prone to equal choices under three conditions,but there are significant differences between envy group and control group in envy condition(χ2 = 13.050,df=1,P<0.001).Study 2 used the adapted donation decision-making paradigm on participants who already took part in study 1.Unlike study 1,participants in study 2 need to make decision on behalf of others.Still,the results of study 2 suggest that participants are more prone to equal choices under three decision conditions,but there are also significant differences between envy group and control group in envy condition(χ2 = 4.174,df=1,P<0.05).Meanwhile,the results of study 2 suggest that there are significant differences between self-decision scene and projecting scene in pro-social condition by envy group(χ2 =4.114,df=1,P<0.05).As for control group,there are significant differences between self-decision scene and projecting scene both in pro-social condition and sacrifice condition(χ2 =9.873,df=1,P<0.05;χ2 = 11.546,df=1,P<0.05).Study 3 recruited 48 graduate students and they were assigned to envy group and control group equally.Two groups completed the decision task for themselves first and then completed another decision task for others.Different from study 1 and study 2,participants in study 3 were given a sharing cue before making decisions.The results of study 3 suggest that participants are more prone to equal choices under three conditions,and there are no significant differences between envy group and control group in three decision-making conditions no matter in self-decision scene(χ2 = 0.223,df=1,P>0.05;χ2 = 3.2,df=1,P>0.05,χ2 = 1.505,df=1,P>0.05)or projecting scene(χ2 = 1.118,df=1,P>0.05;χ2 = 0.000,df=1,P>0.05;χ2 = 0.118,df=1,P>0.05).Through the data analysis,we concludes:First,envy priming indeed can be the cause that less participants choose to make the altruistic decision under the condition others’ monetary gain is more and still increasing while one’s own stays the same.Second,projecting envy can achieve the same effect.Participants in the envy condition will choose to make the altruistic decision less under the condition others’ monetary gain is more and still increasing while one’s own stays the same.Third,the other’s sharing gesture will alleviate the envy emotion by showing that the differences of the decision results between the two groups are statistically insignificant.