Evolutionary roots of envy

[Spathi]

It seems that our level of happiness is determined not by absolute, but by relative level of comfort. This means, that a man feels good only when he lives better than others. It is good to be richer than average, but when everybody becomes richer – nothing changes. This effect can be explained as follows: without this mechanism, populations who live in bad conditions would have problems because they have too much sufferings (e.g. suicides), and the populations who live in good conditions have this problem too (big euphoria can harm the brain).

As a result, we have the feeling of envy. When we see that other people live better then we, the fact of their comfort makes us unhappy. Figuratively speaking, these people, by the fact of their comfort,  “hurt” us, and there appears a desire to hurt them in return. Similarly, when we see that many people are living poorly, we feel compassion and a desire to help.

[annamathew]

Nice one, you have brought up something really interesting! The idea that how happy we feel might be connected to how comfortable we are compared to others, not just how comfortable we are on our own, totally makes sense.

It is true that instead of just measuring happiness by itself, we're comparing it to what other people have. It's like saying, "I'm happy because I have more than that person," or "I'm not happy because I have less than them."

This way of thinking might have developed over time to help us avoid really bad situations. Like, if we see people in really tough conditions, it could make us feel bad and want to help them. But, at the same time, if we see others doing really well, it might make us feel a bit jealous or want to do even better ourselves.

What's cool is that this idea could explain why sometimes when things get better for everyone in a society, it doesn't always make everyone happier. It's like we get used to the new situation, and our happiness levels kind of stop going up.

I wish to learn more studies or research that look more into why we feel this way. It would be awesome to learn more about how our minds work. Expecting more interesting topics like this one!

[OceanBreeze]

On 1/22/2023 at 12:59 AM, Spathi said:

It seems that our level of happiness is determined not by absolute, but by relative level of comfort. This means, that a man feels good only when he lives better than others. It is good to be richer than average, but when everybody becomes richer – nothing changes. This effect can be explained as follows: without this mechanism, populations who live in bad conditions would have problems because they have too much sufferings (e.g. suicides), and the populations who live in good conditions have this problem too (big euphoria can harm the brain).

As a result, we have the feeling of envy. When we see that other people live better then we, the fact of their comfort makes us unhappy. Figuratively speaking, these people, by the fact of their comfort,  “hurt” us, and there appears a desire to hurt them in return. Similarly, when we see that many people are living poorly, we feel compassion and a desire to help.

"As a result, we have the feeling of envy. When we see that other people live better then we, the fact of their comfort makes us unhappy. Figuratively speaking, these people, by the fact of their comfort,  “hurt” us, and there appears a desire to hurt them in return."

 

You seem to be making a case against envy, as if it is always an undesirable emotion. I don’t agree with that line of thinking at all. Envy, just like any other emotion, has its place in the broad spectrum of healthy human emotions.

It is quite normal to look at a successful person’s skills, accomplishments, or possessions and feel yourself desiring to have achieved similar success in life. In fact, this can have a very positive influence on the envious person, causing him or her to try harder to achieve their own level of success.

At the same time, the envious person should take a look at what he has already achieved and appreciate what he already has. It is also good to keep in mind that not all that glitters is gold. The person that you may be envious of, more than likely has his own problems, which are not always apparent to the envious onlooker.

In short, envy is just another human emotion which can be constructive or destructive, depending on how we deal with it. We can deal with envy in a very healthy and constructive way, or in some extreme cases we can lose control of our envy and only then can our envy make us feel unhappy and even hurtful towards the object of our envy. But this is not normal and feelings like this are a sign that we may need help in learning how to use envy in healthy and constructive ways.