Abstract
This study explored the relationship between scarcity mindset and envy and the possible mediating mechanisms. We induced participants’ scarcity mindset. Individuals with a scarcity mindset experienced more envy and generated more malicious motivation and less benign motivation to improve themselves after upward social comparison as compared to their counterparts. The relationship between scarcity mindset and envy was mediated by sense of control. Improving the sense of control of individuals with a scarcity mindset significantly reduced their envy and malicious motivation and significantly enhanced their benign motivation. Overall, this study found that individuals with a scarcity mindset were more envious of others after upward social comparison, and this phenomenon was significantly improved by manipulating their sense of control.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
The materials, scales, codebook, and data for this study have been deposited in the Open Science Framework (OSF) repository (https://osf.io/cd4xv/?view_only=77c253729e644019a93a812c49030e9f)
We first conducted correlation analyses. Results of the correlation analyses are presented in the supplementary material section
All independent-sample t-tests in this study were conducted using SPSS 25.
As mentioned above, since the episodic envy scale included two dimensions, we also compared the differences of dimensions in the scarcity condition and in the control conditions (results are presented in the Supplementary Material section). The same is true for experiments 1b and 2.
All mediation analyses in this study were conducted using Mplus 8.3 (including pathway analyses and indirect effects analyses). The analysis codes have been deposited in the OSF repository
In addition, we compared scarcity scores of three conditions (neutral vs. deserved vs. undeserved) and scarcity mindset in the control condition of experiments 1a and 1b respectively and found significant differences (results are presented in the Supplementary Material section).
In addition, we compared episodic envy and motivations between different scenarios (neutral vs. deserved vs. undeserved) and found the same significant differences as with Experiment 1b (results are presented in the Supplementary Material section).
The collinearity test results showed that the VIFs did not exceed 2 (neutral, deserved, and undeserved conditions). Therefore, Experiment 2 had no serious collinearity problem.
References
Aydin, F., & Vera, E. (2020). Subjective social class and subjective well-being among college students: The mitigating roles of self-esteem and critical consciousness. The Review of Higher Education, 43(4), 1099–1123.
Barth, F. D. (1988). The role of self-esteem in the experience of envy. American Journal of Psychoanalysis, 48(3), 198–210.
Bukhari, A. (2021). Brief mindfulness and self-compassion program (Mind-OP) for reducing envy: randomized trial with university students Unpublished doctoral dissertation. University of Regina, CAN. http://hdl.handle.net/10294/11813.
Chen, B., Luo, L., Wu, X., Chen, Y., & Zhao, Y. (2021). Are the lower class really unhappy? Social class and subjective well-being in chinese adolescents: Moderating role of sense of control and mediating role of self-esteem. Journal of Happiness Studies, 22(2), 825–843.
Cohen-Charash, Y. (2009). Episodic envy. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 39(9), 2128–2173. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1559-1816.2009.00519.x.
Cohen-Charash, Y., & Larson, E. C. (2017a). An emotion divided: Studying envy is better than studying “benign” and “malicious” envy. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 26(2), 174–183.
Cohen-Charash, Y., & Larson, E. C. (2017b). What is the nature of envy? In R. H. Smith, U. Merlone, & M. K. Duffy (Eds.), Envy at work and in organizations (pp. 1–37). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190228057.001.0001.
Cohen-Charash, Y., & Mueller, J. S. (2007). Does perceived unfairness exacerbate or mitigate interpersonal counterproductive work behaviours related to envy? Journal of Applied Psychology, 92(3), 666–680. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.92.3.666.
Connor-Smith, J. K., Compas, B. E., Wadsworth, M. E., Thomsen, A. H., & Saltzman, H. (2000). Responses to stress in adolescence: Measurement of coping and involuntary stress responses. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 68(6), 976–992. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-006X.68.6.976.
Crusius, J., Lange, J., & Cologne, S. C. C. (2017). How do people respond to threatened social status? Moderators of benign versus malicious envy. In R. H. Smith, U. Merlone, & M. K. Duffy (Eds.), Envy at work and in organizations: Research, theory, and applications (pp. 85–110). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190228057.003.0004.
Crusius, J., Gonzalez, M. F., Lange, J., & Cohen-Charash, Y. (2020). Envy: An adversarial review and comparison of two competing views. Emotion Review, 12(1), 3–21. https://doi.org/10.1177/1754073919873131.
Day, M. V., & Fiske, S. T. (2017). Movin’on up? How perceptions of social mobility affect our willingness to defend the system. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 8(3), 267–274.
de Bruijn, E. J., & Antonides, G. (2022). Poverty and economic decision making: A review of scarcity theory. Theory and Decision, 92, 5–37. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11238-021-09802-7.
Destin, M. (2019). Socioeconomic mobility, identity, and health: Experiences that influence immunology and implications for intervention. American Psychologist, 74(2), 207–217. https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0000297.
Destin, M., & Debrosse, R. (2017). Upward social mobility and identity. Current Opinion in Psychology, 18, 99–104.
Dong, X., Xiang, Y., Zhao, J., Li, Q., Zhao, J., & Zhang, W. (2020). How mindfulness affects benign and malicious envy from the perspective of the mindfulness reperceiving model. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 61(3), 436–442. https://doi.org/10.1111/sjop.12596.
Dormann, C. F., Elith, J., Bacher, S., Buchmann, C., Carl, G., Carré, G., Marquéz, J. R., Gruber, B., Lafourcade, B., Leitão, P. J., Münkemüller, T., & Lautenbach, S. (2013). Collinearity: A review of methods to deal with it and a simulation study evaluating their performance. Ecography, 36(1), 27–46. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0587.2012.07348.x.
Duarte, J. L. (2011). The effects of scarcity and self-esteem on the experience of envy Unpublished doctoral dissertation. Arizona State University, USA. https://keep.lib.asu.edu/items/149868.
Duffy, M. K., Scott, K. L., Shaw, J. D., Tepper, B. J., & Aquino, K. (2012). A social context model of envy and social undermining. Academy of Management Journal, 55(3), 643–666. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2009.0804.
Duncan, G. J., & Murnane, R. J. (2011). Whither opportunity?: Rising inequality, schools, and children’s life chances. Russell Sage Foundation.
Festinger, L. (1954). A theory of social comparison processes. Human Relations, 7(2), 117–140. https://doi.org/10.1177/001872675400700202.
Foster, G. M. (1972). The anatomy of envy: A study in symbolic behaviour [and comments and reply]. Current Anthropology, 13(2), 165–202.
Frazier, P., Keenan, N., Anders, S., Perera, S., Shallcross, S., & Hintz, S. (2011). Perceived past, present, and future control and adjustment to stressful life events. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 100(4), 749–765. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0022405.
Fritsche, I., Jonas, E., & Fankhänel, T. (2008). The role of control motivation in mortality salience effects on ingroup support and defense. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95(3), 524–541. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0012666.
Goh, J. X., Hall, J. A., & Rosenthal, R. (2016). Mini meta-analysis of your own studies: Some arguments on why and a primer on how. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 10(10), 535–549. https://doi.org/10.1111/spc3.12267.
Greenwald, A. G., & Banaji, M. R. (1995). Implicit social cognition: Attitudes, self-esteem, and stereotypes. Psychological Review, 102(1), 4–27. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295x.102.1.4.
Greitemeyer, T., & Sagioglou, C. (2016). Subjective socioeconomic status causes aggression: A test of the theory of social deprivation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 111(2), 178–194. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspi0000058.
Hall, C. C., Zhao, J., & Shafir, E. (2014). Self-affirmation among the poor: Cognitive and behavioural implications. Psychological Science, 25(2), 619–625. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797613510949.
Hallford, D. J., & Mellor, D. (2016). Brief reminiscence activities improve state well-being and self-concept in young adults: A randomised controlled experiment. Memory (Hove, England), 24(10), 1311–1320. https://doi.org/10.1080/09658211.2015.1103875.
Hill, S. E., & Buss, D. M. (2006). Envy and positional bias in the evolutionary psychology of management. Managerial and Decision Economics, 27(2–3), 131–143. https://doi.org/10.1002/mde.1288.
Hill, S. E., & Buss, D. M. (2008). The evolutionary psychology of envy. In R. H. Smith (Ed.), Envy: Theory and research (pp. 60–70). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195327953.003.0004.
Hong, Y., Liu, L., Lin, R., & Lian, R. (2020). The relationship between perceived control and life satisfaction in chinese undergraduates: The mediating role of envy and moderating role of self-esteem. Current Psychology, 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-020-00863-5.
Hu, X. Y., Xu, B. X., Yang, S. L., & Guo, Y. Y. (2019). The Concept and Manifestation of Mental Poverty and its interventions. Journal of Psychological Science, (5), 1224.
Imel, J. L., & Dautovich, N. D. (2018). The associations between dispositional mindfulness, sense of control, and affect in a national sample of adults. The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, 73(6), 996–1005. https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gbw092.
Kay, A. C., Gaucher, D., Napier, J. L., Callan, M. J., & Laurin, K. (2008). God and the government: Testing a compensatory control mechanism for the support of external systems. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95(1), 18–35. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.95.1.18.
Kay, A. C., Whitson, J. A., Gaucher, D., & Galinsky, A. D. (2009). Compensatory control: Achieving order through the mind, our institutions, and the heavens. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 18(5), 264–268. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8721.2009.01649.x.
Keinan, G. (2002). The effects of stress and desire for control on superstitious behaviour. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 28(1), 102–108. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167202281009.
Kim, P., Evans, G. W., Angstadt, M., Ho, S. S., Sripada, C. S., Swain, J. E., Liberzon, I., & Phan, K. L. (2013). Effects of childhood poverty and chronic stress on emotion regulatory brain function in adulthood. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 110(46), 18442–18447.
Klotz, A. C., & Bolino, M. C. (2016). Saying goodbye: The nature, causes, and consequences of employee resignation styles. Journal of Applied Psychology, 101(10), 1386–1404. https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0000135.
Kraus, M. W., & Park, J. W. (2017). The structural dynamics of social class. Current Opinion in Psychology, 18, 55–60. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2017.07.029.
Kraus, M. W., Piff, P. K., & Keltner, D. (2009). Social class, sense of control, and social explanation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 97(6), 992–1004. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0016357.
Kraus, M. W., Piff, P. K., Mendoza-Denton, R., Rheinschmidt, M. L., & Keltner, D. (2012). Social class, solipsism, and contextualism: How the rich are different from the poor. Psychological Review, 119(3), 546–572. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0028756.
Lachman, M. E., & Weaver, S. L. (1998). The sense of control as a moderator of social class differences in health and well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74(3), 763–773. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.74.3.763.
Landau, M. J., Kay, A. C., & Whitson, J. A. (2015). Compensatory control and the appeal of a structured world. Psychological Bulletin, 141(3), 694–722. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0038703.
Lange, J., & Crusius, J. (2015). Dispositional envy revisited: Unraveling the motivational dynamics of benign and malicious envy. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 41(2), 284–294. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/br39f.
Lange, J., & Protasi, S. (2021). An interdisciplinary perspective on the value of envy. Review of Philosophy and Psychology, 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13164-021-00548-3.
Lange, J., Paulhus, D. L., & Crusius, J. (2018). Elucidating the dark side of envy: Distinctive links of benign and malicious envy with dark personalities. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 44(4), 601–614. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167217746340.
Lange, J., Weidman, A. C., & Crusius, J. (2018). The painful duality of envy: Evidence for an integrative theory and a meta-analysis on the relation of envy and schadenfreude. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 114(4), 572–598. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspi0000118.
Legare, C. H., & Souza, A. L. (2014). Searching for control: Priming randomness increases the evaluation of ritual efficacy. Cognitive Science, 38(1), 152–161. https://doi.org/10.1111/cogs.12077.
Lei, L., Wang, J., & Liu, W. (2020). The effect of scarcity on individuals’ psychology and behavior: An explanation from a more integrated perspective. Advances in Psychological Science, 28(5), 833–843. https://journal.psych.ac.cn/xlkxjz/CN/Y2020/V28/I5/833.
Li, Q., & Xiang, Y. (2020). How is childhood maltreatment linked to benign envy/malicious envy? The mediating role of self-esteem, authentic pride and hubristic pride. Personality and Mental Health, 14(4), 376–387.
Mani, A., Mullainathan, S., Shafir, E., & Zhao, J. (2013). Poverty impedes cognitive function. Science, 341(6149), 976–980. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1238041.
Manstead, A. S. (2018). The psychology of social class: How socioeconomic status impacts thought, feelings, and behaviour. British Journal of Social Psychology, 57(2), 267–291.
Montal-Rosenberg, R., & Moran, S. (2020). Envy and help giving. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspi0000340.
Moran, S., & Schweitzer, M. E. (2008). When better is worse: Envy and the use of deception. Negotiation and Conflict Management Research, 1(1), 3–29. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1750-4716.2007.00002.x.
Mullainathan, S., & Shafir, E. (2013). Scarcity: Why having too little means so much. Macmillan.
Neufeld, D. (2017). How do you solve a problem like my envy? Self-affirmation as a potential envy-reducing intervention Unpublished doctoral dissertation. University of Manitoba, CAN. http://hdl.handle.net/1993/32521.
Newcomb, M. D., & Harlow, L. L. (1986). Life events and substance use among adolescents: Mediating effects of perceived loss of control and meaninglessness in life. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51(3), 564–577. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.51.3.564.
Norris, A. H., Rao, N., Huber-Krum, S., Garver, S., Chemey, E., & Turner, N., A (2019). Scarcity mindset in reproductive health decision making: A qualitative study from rural Malawi. Culture Health & Sexuality, 21(12), 1333–1348. https://doi.org/10.1080/13691058.2018.1562092.
Nosek, B. A., Hawkins, C. B., & Frazier, R. S. (2011). Implicit social cognition: From measures to mechanisms. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 15(4), 152–159. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2011.01.005.
Pagnini, F., Bercovitz, K., & Langer, E. (2016). Perceived control and mindfulness: Implications for clinical practice. Journal of Psychotherapy Integration, 26(2), 91–102. https://doi.org/10.1037/int0000035.
Piskorz, J., & Piskorz, Z. (2009). Situational determinants of envy and schadenfreude. Polish Psychological Bulletin, 40(3), 137–144. https://doi.org/10.2478/s10059-009-0030-2.
Ren, M. H., Zou, S. Q., Wang, J., Zhang, R. T., & Ding, D. Q. (2022). The relationship between subjective socioeconomic status and envy in Chinese collectivist culture: The role of sense of control. Journal of Psychology in Africa. In Press.
Rosenberg, M., & Pearlin, L. I. (1978). Social class and self-esteem among children and adults. American Journal of Sociology, 84(1), 53–77.
Rothbaum, F., Weisz, J. R., & Snyder, S. S. (1982). Changing the world and changing the self: A two-process model of perceived control. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 42(1), 5–37. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.42.1.5.
Roux, C., Goldsmith, K., & Bonezzi, A. (2015). On the psychology of scarcity: When reminders of resource scarcity promote selfish (and generous) behaviour. Journal of Consumer Research, 42(4), 615–631. https://doi.org/10.1093/jcr/ucv048.
Ruthig, J. C., Chipperfield, J. G., Perry, R. P., Newall, N. E., & Swift, A. (2007). Comparative risk and perceived control: Implications for psychological and physical well-being among older adults. The Journal of Social Psychology, 147(4), 345–369. https://doi.org/10.3200/SOCP.147.4.345-369.
Sagioglou, C., Forstmann, M., & Greitemeyer, T. (2019). Belief in social mobility mitigates hostility resulting from disadvantaged social standing. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 45(4), 541–556.
Salerno, A., & Escoe, B. (2020). Resource scarcity increases the value of pride. Journal of the Association for Consumer Research, 5(4), 458–469.
Schoeck, H. E. (1969). A theory of social behaviour. Seeker & Warburg.
Shah, A. K., Mullainathan, S., & Shafir, E. (2012). Some consequences of having too little. Science, 338(6107), 682–685. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1222426.
Shah, A. K., Shafir, E., & Mullainathan, S. (2015). Scarcity frames value. Psychological Science, 26(4), 402–412. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797614563958.
Shah, A. K., Zhao, J., Mullainathan, S., & Shafir, E. (2018). Money in the mental lives of the poor. Social Cognition, 36(1), 4–19. https://doi.org/10.1521/soco.2018.36.1.4.
Smith, R. H. (1991). Envy and the sense of injustice. In P. Salovey (Ed.), The psychology of jealousy and envy (pp. 79–99). Guilford Press.
Smith, R. H. (2004). Envy and its transmutations. In L. Z. Tiedens, C. W. Leach, & K. Oatley (Eds.), The social life of emotions (pp. 43–63). Oxford University Press.
Smith, H. J., & Huo, Y. J. (2014). Relative deprivation: How subjective experiences of inequality influence social behaviour and health. Policy Insights from the Behavioural and Brain Sciences, 1(1), 231–238. https://doi.org/10.1177/2372732214550165.
Smith, R. H., & Kim, S. H. (2007). Comprehending envy. Psychological Bulletin, 133(1), 46–64. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.133.1.46.
Smith, R. H., Combs, D. J. Y., & Thielke, S. M. (2008). Envy and the challenges to good health. In R. H. Smith (Ed.), Envy: Theory and research (pp. 290–314). Oxford University Press.
Sterling, C. M., Van de Ven, N., & Smith, R. H. (2016). The two faces of envy: Studying benign and malicious envy in the workplace. Oxford University Press.
Stone, A. A., Turkkan, J. S., Bachrach, C. A., Jobe, J. B., Kurtzman, H. S., & Cain, V. S. (Eds.). (2000). The science of self-report: Implications for research and practice. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers.
Tai, K., Narayanan, J., & McAllister, D. J. (2012). Envy as pain: Rethinking the nature of envy and its implications for employees and organizations. Academy of Management Review, 37(1), 107–129.
Tapias, M., & Escandell, X. (2011). Not in the eyes of the beholder: Envy among bolivian migrants in Spain. International Migration, 49(6), 74–94. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2435.2011.00705.x.
Tripathi, R. C., Pande, N., Tripathi, V. N., Shankar, S., Pande, A., & Bahadur, R. (2022). Scarcity mindsets and generational differences in India: The role of cognitive and affective factors. Psychology and Developing Societies, 34(1), 45–78. https://doi.org/10.1177/09713336221080628.
Tully, K. (2022). Odd bedfellows: How choice architecture can enhance autonomy and mitigate inequality. Behavioural Public Policy, 6(4), 578–596. https://doi.org/10.1017/bpp.2019.36.
Van de Ven, N. (2016). Envy and its consequences: Why it is useful to distinguish between benign and malicious envy. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 10(6), 337–349. https://doi.org/10.1111/spc3.12253.
Van de Ven, N., Zeelenberg, M., & Pieters, R. (2009). Leveling up and down: The experiences of benign and malicious envy. Emotion, 9(3), 410–429. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0015669.
Van de Ven, N., Zeelenberg, M., & Pieters, R. (2010). Warding off the evil eye: When the fear of being envied increases prosocial behaviour. Psychological Science, 21(11), 1671–1677. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797610385352.
Van de Ven, N., Zeelenberg, M., & Pieters, R. (2012). Appraisal patterns of envy and related emotions. Motivation and Emotion, 36(2), 195–204. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-011-9235-8.
Vecchio, R. P. (2000). Negative emotion in the workplace: Employee jealousy and envy. International Journal of Stress Management, 7(3), 161–179. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1009592430712.
Vrabel, J. K., Zeigler-Hill, V., & Southard, A. C. (2018). Self-esteem and envy: Is state self-esteem instability associated with the benign and malicious forms of envy? Personality and Individual Differences, 123(1), 100–104.
Wadsworth, M. E. (2012). Working with low-income families: Lessons learned from basic and applied research on coping with poverty-related stress. Journal of Contemporary Psychotherapy, 42(1), 17–25. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10879-011-9192-2.
Wang, X., Chen, Z., Poon, K. T., & Jiang, T. (2021). Perceiving a lack of social justice: Lower class individuals apply higher moral standards to others. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 12(2), 186–193. https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550619898558.
Whitson, J. A., & Galinsky, A. D. (2008). Lacking control increases illusory pattern perception. Science, 322(5898), 115–117. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1159845.
Whitson, J., Dow, B., Menon, T., & Wang, C. (2022). Sense of control and conspiracy perceptions: Generative directions on a well-worn path. Current Opinion in Psychology, 47, 101389. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2022.101389.
Williams, K. D. (2007). Ostracism. Annual Review of Psychology, 58, 425–452. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.58.110405.085641.
Xiang, Y., Dong, X., Zhao, J., Li, Q., Zhao, J., & Zhang, W. (2021). The relationship between mindfulness and envy: The mediating role of emotional intelligence. PsyCh Journal, 10(6), 898–904. https://doi.org/10.1002/pchj.493.
Xu, F. M., Zhang, H., Ma, H. Y., Deng, Y., Shi, Y. W., & Li, O. (2017). The poverty problem: Based on psychological perspective. Advances in Psychological Science (In Chinese), 25(8), 1431–1440. https://doi.org/10.3724/SP.J.1042.2017.01431. https://journal.psych.ac.cn/xlkxjz/EN/.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher’s Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Ren, M., Zou, S., Zhu, S. et al. The effects of scarcity mindset on envy: the mediating role of the sense of control. Curr Psychol 43, 7612–7627 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-023-04872-y
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-023-04872-y