Do We Always Hope to Become “Better” When We Experience Envy? Effects of Incidental Envy and Social Context on Self-Improvement Behavior

Incidental envy is known to motivate self-improvement behavior. This phenomenon occurs in part because feelings of inferiority guide subsequent behavior in a way to self-improve, after experiencing envy. However, no research has yet examined whether this tendency may be affected by social context: p...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inASIA MARKETING JOURNAL Vol. 19; no. 2; pp. 45 - 61
Main Authors Youn, Y. Jin, Park, Kiwan
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published 한국마케팅학회AMJ 31.07.2017
Korean Marketing Association
Subjects
emotion
envy
self-improvement
social context
envy
emotion
social context
self-improvement
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Summary:Incidental envy is known to motivate self-improvement behavior. This phenomenon occurs in part because feelings of inferiority guide subsequent behavior in a way to self-improve, after experiencing envy. However, no research has yet examined whether this tendency may be affected by social context: private versus public. Although extant literature suggests that envy generally leads to self-improvement, we demonstrate that this effect may be mitigated under public social contexts. Across two studies, we find that although incidental envy generally increases self-improvement behavior (e.g., effort exertion and charitable giving) in private social contexts, this tendency is attenuated under public social contexts. We conclude with a discussion of theoretical and practical implications of this finding.
ISSN:1598-7868
2765-6500
DOI:10.15830/amj.2017.19.2.45