Emotional Intelligence Affects How Envy Manifests
A recent study suggests that a person's ability to regulate their emotions predicts how they experience envy, with higher emotion regulation skills linked to benign envy that motivates self-improvement, rather than malicious envy that breeds hostility.
Envy is a common emotion that can manifest in two distinct ways: benign envy, which motivates self-improvement, and malicious envy, which breeds hostility. A recent study published in *Personality and Individual Differences* investigated how distinct forms of envy operate and found that a person's ability to regulate their emotions predicts how they experience envy.
The study, conducted by Christophe Haag, a professor of organizational behavior at emlyon business school in France, involved 442 French-speaking adults who were recruited online through social media platforms. The participants completed a performance-based assessment of emotion regulation ability, which required them to read four emotionally demanding situations and select the most effective strategy for managing the emotion. The scores on this regulation test were calculated as the proportion of correct answers, ranging from 0 to 1, with the sample scoring an average of 0.539, or roughly 54 percent correct.
The participants also completed a 10-item survey rating their tendencies to experience benign and malicious envy on a scale from 1 to 6. The average score for benign envy was 3.74, suggesting a moderate presence of self-improvement motives, while the average score for malicious envy was much lower at 1.66.
The statistical analysis indicated that higher emotion regulation ability positively predicted benign envy. A standard deviation increase in emotion regulation ability was associated with a 0.165 standard deviation increase in benign envy scores. In contrast, the association between emotion regulation ability and malicious envy was not statistically significant.
| Emotion Regulation Ability | Benign Envy | Malicious Envy | | --- | --- | --- | | Average score | 0.539 | 1.66 | | Standard deviation increase | 0.165 | - |
The study also found that emotion regulation ability was the emotional ability most strongly associated with benign envy among the seven abilities measured. The control variables, including global self-esteem, attachment anxiety, attachment avoidance, age, and gender, were also taken into account to isolate the specific role of emotion regulation.
The results suggest that emotional intelligence may help channel uncomfortable feelings into constructive actions. The study's findings have implications for understanding how people manage emotions and how emotional intelligence can be developed to promote positive outcomes.
## The Role of Emotional Intelligence in Envy
Emotional intelligence encompasses several cognitive abilities related to perceiving, understanding, and managing emotions. The study's findings suggest that emotion regulation ability is a key component of emotional intelligence that can help individuals manage envy in a constructive way.
## Implications for Emotional Intelligence Development
The study's findings have implications for understanding how emotional intelligence can be developed to promote positive outcomes. By focusing on developing emotion regulation ability, individuals may be able to manage envy in a more constructive way and promote self-improvement. The study's results also highlight the importance of considering the specific emotional abilities that are being targeted in emotional intelligence development programs.
The study's limitations, including the cross-sectional design and predominantly female sample, are acknowledged. Future studies should aim to replicate the findings with more diverse samples and broader measures to clarify whether these emotional pathways operate uniformly across different populations.
