scholarly journals The Effect of Malicious Envy on Schadenfreude When Schadenfreude Is Elicited Through Social Comparisons

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Huiyan Lin ◽  
Jiafeng Liang
Keyword(s):  
Social Comparison ◽  
Social Comparisons ◽  
The Other ◽  
Malicious Envy ◽  
Gain And Loss ◽  
Loss Frame ◽  
Gain Frame ◽  
Exact Amount

Previous studies have investigated whether envy, particularly malicious envy, increases feelings of schadenfreude and whether this effect is evident in both gain and loss frames. However, as a social-comparison-based emotion, schadenfreude was not investigated through social comparisons in these previous studies. Thus, the present study aimed to investigate whether malicious envy influences schadenfreude when schadenfreude is elicited in the context of precise and ambiguous social comparisons. To address this issue, participants in the present study were asked to play a monetary game with several other players. In the experimental condition, participants gained less or lost more than the other player; in the control condition, both the participants and the player gained little or lost much. Subsequently, the participants observed that the player encountered a misfortune, that is, gained less or lost more money than the participant. The results showed that when participants knew the exact amount of monetary gained and lost by themselves and the other player (i.e., precise social comparisons), malicious envy increased feelings of schadenfreude only in the loss frame rather than in the gain frame. More importantly, malicious envy turned out to reduce feelings of schadenfreude in both gain and loss frames, when participants did not know the exact amount (i.e., ambiguous social comparisons). The findings provide novel evidence that malicious envy does not always increase schadenfreude particularly when schadenfreude is elicited through social comparisons.

scholarly journals ERP Effects of Malicious Envy on Schadenfreude in Gain and Loss Frames

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Huiyan Lin ◽  
Jiafeng Liang
Keyword(s):  
Neural Activity ◽  
Early Time ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
Time Range ◽  
Positive Potential ◽  
Malicious Envy ◽  
Gain And Loss ◽  
Loss Frame ◽  
Gain Frame ◽  
Early Late

Previous behavioral and neural studies have shown the effects of malicious envy on schadenfreude. However, it is unclear whether these effects are modulated by contextual frames (e.g., gain and loss frames). Thus, the present study aimed to investigate whether behavioral and event-related potential (ERP) effects of malicious envy on schadenfreude were different in gain and loss frames. To address this issue, the participants in the present study believed they were playing a monetary game with several other players. In the malicious envy condition, the participants won less money than the player in the gain frame and lost more money in the loss frame; in the control condition, both participants and the player gained little money in the gain frame and lost much in the loss frame. Subsequently, the participants were informed that the player encountered a misfortune, i.e., gained little in the gain frame and lost much in the loss frame. Results showed that malicious envy increased feelings of schadenfreude and ERP responses when the player encountered a misfortune. Moreover, increased ERP responses by malicious envy occurred at the feedback-related negativity (FRN), and early late positive potential (LPP) time ranges in the gain frame but at the late LPP time range in the loss frame. The findings might suggest that malicious envy affects schadenfreude and corresponding neural activity, whereas the neural effects occur at comparatively early time ranges in the gain frame but at a later time range in the loss frame.

Envy and Social Comparison

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Niels van de Ven ◽  
Marcel Zeelenberg
Keyword(s):  
Social Comparison ◽  
Social Comparisons ◽  
Past Work ◽  
Good Fortune ◽  
Malicious Envy ◽  
The Social ◽  
Upward Social Comparison

Upward social comparison can give rise to the emotion of envy: the pain caused by the good fortune of others. We explain what envy is, and what the possible function of envy is to an organism experiencing it. We provide an overview of past work on envy, the distinction between two subtypes (benign and malicious envy), possible antecedents of envy, possible consequences of envy, and the responses to being envied by others. In each of these areas there are clear links to research on social comparison, and research on envy has greatly benefitted from insights from the social comparison literature. Given the surge in research on envy in the last decade, we hope that the findings on envy can also inspire those investigating social comparisons.

Envy and Social Comparison

2019 ◽  
pp. 226-250
Author(s):  
Niels van de Ven ◽  
Marcel Zeelenberg
Keyword(s):  
Social Comparison ◽  
Social Comparisons ◽  
Past Work ◽  
Good Fortune ◽  
Malicious Envy ◽  
The Social ◽  
Upward Social Comparison

Upward social comparison can give rise to the emotion of envy: the pain caused by the good fortune of others. This chapter explains what envy is and what the possible function of envy is to an organism experiencing it. The authors provide an overview of past work on envy, the distinction between two subtypes (benign and malicious envy), possible antecedents of envy, possible consequences of envy, and the responses to being envied by others. In each of these areas, there are clear links to research on social comparison and research on envy has greatly benefited from insights from the social comparison literature. Given the surge in research on envy in the last decade, the authors hope that the findings on envy inspires those investigating social comparisons.

Cooperation and Competitive Goals: A Social-Comparison Analysis

1974 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 887-894 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven P. McNeel ◽  
James D. Sweeney ◽  
Peter C. Bohlin
Keyword(s):  
Social Comparison ◽  
Goal Orientation ◽  
Choice Behavior ◽  
Prisoner’S Dilemma ◽  
Social Comparisons ◽  
The Other ◽  
Comparison Analysis ◽  
Relative Gain ◽  
Competitive Outcomes ◽  
Average Condition

Ss' choice behavior in two types of mixed-motive games was used to classify them according to their predominant goal orientation. Ss with competitive (Relative Gain) goals and those with individualistic (Own Gain) goals were then presented with 50 decomposed Prisoner's Dilemma games in which they interacted with a conditionally cooperative other. Some Ss saw their own and the other person's outcomes displayed on each trial, while others also saw a bogus Average outcome. The latter outcome was constructed such that comparison with it made the mutually competitive outcomes “look bad” and the mutually cooperative outcomes “look good.” On the basis of social-comparisons, it was predicted that Relative-gain Ss would learn to cooperate in the “Average” condition but not in the Other condition. Own-gain Ss were expected to show high levels of cooperation over-all and to cooperate sooner in the Average condition than in the Other condition. Predictions were significant only for Own-gain Ss, though they were also in the expected direction for Relative-gain Ss. The discussion focused on problems with using social-comparison processes as a basis for training Ss to be cooperative, with special emphasis placed on the issue of the relevance of the available comparisons.

Comparisons Across Dimensions, People, and Time: On the Primacy of Social Comparison in Self-Evaluations

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 791-800 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ethan Zell ◽  
Jason E. Strickhouser
Keyword(s):  
Social Comparison ◽  
Social Comparisons ◽  
The Other ◽  
Affective Reactions ◽  
Past Performance ◽  
Temporal Comparison ◽  
Upward Comparison

People often consider how their performance in one domain compares to their performance in other domains, the performance of other people, and their past performance (i.e., dimensional, social, and temporal comparison). The present research is the first to test whether social comparisons have a significantly larger effect on self-evaluations than dimensional and temporal comparisons. Study 1 participants received downward versus upward dimensional, social, and temporal comparison feedback ( N = 393). Study 2 participants received downward versus upward comparison feedback for one type and lateral comparisons for the other two types ( N = 281). Dimensional and social comparison significantly influenced self-evaluations and affective reactions in both studies. As anticipated, however, social comparison had a significantly larger effect on self-evaluations and affective reactions than either dimensional or temporal comparison. These data provide novel, causal evidence for the primacy of social comparison when people receive three feedback types.

scholarly journals Fish Disease Outreach Messages: Testing of Gain and Loss Frames

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erin Pavloski ◽  
Heather Treizenberg
Keyword(s):  
Disease Management ◽  
Natural Resources ◽  
Risk Perceptions ◽  
Fish Disease ◽  
Outreach Programs ◽  
Management Context ◽  
Gain And Loss ◽  
Loss Frame ◽  
Gain Frame ◽  
Loss Framing

Gain and loss framing has been used in risk communication across many fields as a technique for shaping individuals’ behaviors. Via community-engaged research conducted with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, we tested five message frames to determine efficacy for outreach programs. We made the following determinations: (a) for increasing risk perceptions regarding fish disease, a loss frame in a fish disease management context should be used; (b) for decreasing risk perceptions regarding fish disease management, a gain frame in a fish disease context should be used; (c) for motivating behavioral intention regarding prevention and risk reduction, a gain frame in a fish disease context should be used. Our findings are of interest to Extension professionals and others working in natural resources.

scholarly journals Mother to mother: Mothers’ social comparison-based emotions on social networking sites

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 602-618
Author(s):  
Leman Pinar Tosun ◽  
Ahu Öztürk ◽  
Gamze Özdemir
Keyword(s):  
Social Networking ◽  
Social Comparison ◽  
Social Networking Sites ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Social Comparisons ◽  
The Other ◽  
Emotion Classification ◽  
Internal Process ◽  
The Social ◽  
Wide Range

Social networking sites (SNSs) are platforms where people make social comparisons very frequently, and because of those comparisons, they have the potential for evoking a wide range of emotions. According to typology of social comparison-based emotions, the emotions felt after social comparisons may vary according to the direction of comparison (upward vs. downward) as well as the internal process that triggered by those comparisons (assimilation vs. contrast). The current study aims to examine the mothers' emotions they felt after social comparisons they make with other mothers on the SNSs, and search out the usefulness of using the typology of social comparison-based emotions in examining those emotions. For this purpose, an online survey was conducted on 42 mothers between the ages of 20 and 48, who have been a member of SNSs for at least six months. Mothers responses to two open-ended questions; one is about the emotions they feel after upward comparisons, and the other is about the ones that they felt after downward comparison they made with other mothers on SNSs, were examined through thematic analyses. The results pointed out that the emotion classification offered in Smith’s theory might be useful in examining the social comparisons on SNSs made by mothers, with the addition of some new categories. Specifically, it was found that some mothers feel doubts about the credibility of information in other mothers’ posts, and some others denied they are emotionally influenced by social comparisons. Another interesting finding was that mothers reported to feel assimilative and contrastive emotions simultaneously.

scholarly journals Arbitration between insula and temporoparietal junction subserves framing-induced boosts in generosity during social discounting

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manuela Sellitto ◽  
Susanne Neufang ◽  
Adam Schweda ◽  
Bernd Weber ◽  
Tobias Kalenscher
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Prosocial Behavior ◽  
Social Distance ◽  
Insular Cortex ◽  
Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
The Other ◽  
Temporoparietal Junction ◽  
Social Discounting ◽  
Loss Frame ◽  
Gain Frame

AbstractGenerosity toward others declines across the perceived social distance to them. Here, participants chose between selfish and costly generous options in two conditions: in the gain frame, a generous choice yielded a gain to the other; in the loss frame, it entailed preventing the loss of a previous endowment to the other. Social discounting was reduced in the loss compared to the gain frame, implying increased generosity toward strangers. Using neuroimaging tools, we found that while the temporoparietal junction (TPJ) and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC) subserved generosity in the gain frame, the insular cortex was selectively recruited during generous choices in the loss frame. We provide support for a network-model according to which TPJ and insula differentially promote generosity by modulating value signals in the VMPFC in a frame-dependent fashion. These results extend our understanding of the insula role in nudging prosocial behavior in humans.

Passive Facebook Use and Depression

2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 165-175 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leman Pınar Tosun ◽  
Ezgi Kaşdarma
Keyword(s):  
Social Comparisons ◽  
Path Model ◽  
The Other ◽  
Facebook Use ◽  
Psychological Mechanism ◽  
Model Fits

Abstract. In the current study we examined a psychological mechanism linking Facebook use to depression. A survey was conducted with 319 undergraduates about their passive Facebook use, their frequency of making upward social comparisons on Facebook, the emotions evoked through these comparisons, and their levels of depression. Half of the participants were given questions about the Facebook comparisons they made with their close friends, while the other half were given questions about the Facebook comparisons they made with acquaintances. Analysis of the whole sample revealed that upward Facebook comparison elicited assimilative emotions (inspiration, optimism, and admiration) more than contrastive emotions did (envy and resentment). A path model was developed in which passive use of Facebook predicted the frequency of making upward social comparisons, and, in turn, the frequency of making upward Facebook comparisons predicted depression through two routes: one through contrastive emotions and other through assimilative emotions. The results suggested that the model fits the data. As expected, the frequency of upward Facebook comparisons was associated with the increases in frequency of both contrastive and assimilative emotions, and the associations of these two types of emotions with depression were in opposite directions: Depression increased as the frequency of contrastive emotions increased, and it decreased as the frequency of assimilative emotions increased. The strength of the latter aforementioned association was stronger when the comparison targets were acquaintances rather than close friends.

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