2023 Volume 62 Issue 2 Pages 208-222
This study investigated the intensity of people’s malicious and benign envy, pulling-down motivation, and travel intention upon knowing of others’ past or future travel during the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants read a scenario in which they found out that their friend either traveled or is going to travel. To manipulate the presence or absence of a travel plan, the scenario for half of the participants involved planning to travel themselves but the plan was canceled. The participants read the scenario and assessed their intensity of envy, pulling-down motivation, and travel intention. They then reported the extent to which they have stayed at home and avoided going outside since the COVID-19 pandemic. Results showed that for participants who stayed home and had their travel plans canceled, their friends’ past travel events led to stronger motivation to pull them down and a heightened intention to engage in gorgeous travel via malicious envy than their friends’ future travel activities. This suggests that people experience stronger malicious envy toward others’ past activities if the uncertainty of future events is high.
