INTRODUCTION Malicious envy is an inevitable negative emotion, as long as people engage in social comparison. Envy hinders individual health and negatively impacting interpersonal relationships and performance in organizations. Therefore, understanding the management of envy and its mechanism is important. This study examines how they spend their time after experiencing envy (interpersonal dialogue, AI dialogue, net-surfing, or control group) can either mitigate or intensify envy. Additionally, focusing on the etymology of envy (invidia), which means "to stare intently," we predict that selective attention bias underlies the amplification of envy.
METHOD The participants were 25 adults. First, they responded to the scales for emotions, including envy (Pre-Time-1). They then participated in a competitive "Splatoon" game with an opponent. This match was designed to result in defeat and trigger envy toward the opponent. After the match, responses to the dot-probe task and envy were measured (Pre-Time-2). They were instructed to take a 10-minute break in an individual booth. They were randomly assigned to one of four conditions, and a final measurement was conducted (Time-3).
RESULTS Malicious envy score at Pre-Time-2 was significantly higher than at Pre-Time-1, with no significant differences between the four conditions. Analysis of co-variance was conducted: experimental condition as the independent variable, malicious envy score or bias-score of dot-probe task (Time-3) as the dependent variable, and using Pre-Time-2 each score, gender, and engagement with the experiment as covariates. The results showed that both the malicious envy score and the bias-score were significantly higher in the net-surfing condition than in the control group. However, no differences between conditions were observed for general negative emotions.
CONCLUSION Malicious envy, arising from losing the game, was intensified during the 10-minute break spent net-surfing, with selective attention toward opponents. The selective attention bias was suggested to be characteristic of malicious envy.