Is envy harmful to a society's psychological health and wellbeing? A longitudinal study of 18,000 adults
Citation: Redzo Mujcic, Andrew J. Oswald Is envy harmful to a society's psychological health and wellbeing? A longitudinal study of 18,000 adults.
DOI (original publisher): 10.1016/j.socscimed.2017.12.030
Semantic Scholar (metadata): 10.1016/j.socscimed.2017.12.030
Sci-Hub (fulltext): 10.1016/j.socscimed.2017.12.030
Internet Archive Scholar (search for fulltext): Is envy harmful to a society's psychological health and wellbeing? A longitudinal study of 18,000 adults
Wikidata (metadata): Q47188385
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Summary
First study of envy within a nationally representative longitudinal data set: 18,000 randomly selected Australians over the years 2005, 2009, and 2013.
Contributions:
- cross-validates in panel data that older adults have monotonically lower levels of envy than young adults
- shows envy is predictive of reduced psychological health, both contemporaneously and in the future
- finds no evidence that envy is beneficial (eg future motivator)
- statistical evidence for U-shaped mental well-being is independent of declining lifetime levels of envy
Theoretical and Practical Relevance
Suggests policymakers might want to think about how to reduce envy.
