Influence of friendship on benign and malicious envy among secondary school students

Benign and malicious envy arise from social comparisons regarding a quality, achievement or possession. As school is inherently evaluative and social, the classroom offers a relevant and understudied context to investigate envy and the impact of friendship on envy. Prior research has shown a positive association between relationship closeness and benign envy.

Broadening research on the interconnectedness of emotional and social processes in school, using an experimental vignette design, this study examines whether typical school situations elicit envy and whether relationship closeness influences envy.

N = 794 7th-10th graders (M_age = 14.10, SD = 1.33, 53.27% female) from 98 classrooms.

In an experimental study, participants were assigned to two vignettes describing typical envy-eliciting school situations, systematically manipulating relationship closeness (friend vs. classmate) and envy form (benign vs. malicious). We measured state envy using an adapted version of scales measuring pain, benign envy and malicious envy based on the Pain-driven Dual Envy Theory. We assessed control and deservingness with two items and tested the effects of relationship closeness, envy form and their interaction and the mediational effects of deservingness and control.

Benign versus malicious envy scenarios elicited more benign envy, control and deservingness and less malicious envy. Malicious envy was lower, and deservingness was higher in the friendship than in the classmate condition. Deservingness mediated the association between relationship closeness and envy.

This study offers a novel contribution to envy theory, raises awareness about envy in school and highlights the influence of classroom relationships on malicious envy.