Do Malicious Envy and Benign Envy Elicit Different Behaviors in 6-year-olds?

Abstract

Most people consider envy a negative emotion. However, envy can be either malicious or benign. Malicious envy motivates one to pull others down, whereas benign envy motivates one to improve themselves. Although preschoolers can understand envy from a third-party perspective, the behaviors elicited by their envy have not been studied. This study employed a within-subjects design; we set competitive situations in which six-year-olds ( N=61) felt either malicious or benign envy after losing a competition. We examined the children’s liking for the competitor and their behaviors in response to malicious or benign envy. The results indicate that their liking for the competitor remained unchanged under the malicious envy condition, and they attempted to pull the competitor down. However, in the benign envy condition, the participants’ liking for the competitor increased and they did not attempt at pulling the competitor down. Moreover, regardless of the conditions, children worked harder on tasks. These findings indicate that children exhibit different behaviors even in their preschool years based on whether they have malicious or benign envy.

【Research Impact】

We analyzed whether malicious and benign envy induce different behaviors among 6-year-olds by creating a situation in which they lose to other children. In the malicious envy condition, the children prevented their competitor’s success. However, regardless of the conditions, the children displayed self-improvement behaviors, such as diligently working on tasks. This indicates that, even in preschool years, envy may affect children’s behavior.