envy
Enable an AI agent to recognise and assess reported or tentatively inferred envy, track its consequences, and identify responses that respect the people involved.
Research draft, second pass
A second pass drafted this model: the structure a model of this thing needs, and what is known about it in the world. The line under this one says how the second half was obtained - researched against sources, or recalled without web access, in which case nothing here was read anywhere and every claim is a lead to verify. Unreviewed either way.
Researched by: Codex + Grok
Purpose and description
Enable an AI agent to recognise and assess reported or tentatively inferred envy, track its consequences, and identify responses that respect the people involved.
Envy is an aversive, comparison-based social emotion in which a person registers another's possession of a personally valued advantage (object, attribute, relationship, or standing) as a painful deficit of the self, typically with a wish either to obtain that advantage or to see it withdrawn.
It can be Elicit the specific comparison and its personal significance without imposing the label of envy.; Separate perceived advantages, verified circumstances, emotional interpretations, and observed actions.; Track which encounters or representations of the target intensify or ease the comparison.; Explore whether the person wants a similar outcome, recognition, relief from comparison, or a change in the target's position.; Help formulate feasible, consensual responses such as pursuing a valued goal, reducing comparison exposure, or preparing a conversation.; Identify expressed harmful intentions or actions for separate assessment without treating envy itself as proof of danger..
Distinguishing features
Identify a particular advantage attributed to another and a self-relevant comparison; wanting something without that comparison is insufficient to classify it as envy.
Check whether the central concern is another's advantage or the possible loss of an existing relationship to a rival; the latter points toward jealousy, although both may coexist.
Distinguish appreciation of another's achievement from a painful sense of comparative disadvantage; admiration alone does not establish envy.
Check whether the grievance concerns a perceived wrong, the comparative gap, or both; a fairness objection alone does not establish envy.
Do not require hostility or a wish to deprive the target: record these separately rather than treating them as necessary evidence of envy.
Scope
+ The person experiencing envy, the comparison target, and the specific advantage attributed to that target.
+ The personally meaningful gap between the person's perceived position and the target's perceived position.
+ Reported feelings, appraisals, wishes, and action tendencies associated with the comparison.
+ Episode intensity, recurrence, triggers, and changes in the comparison over time.
+ Responses to envy and their observed effects on the person, the target, and their relationship.
- Jealousy centred on a perceived threat to an existing valued relationship.
- General self-worth, mood, or mental health conditions beyond the particular comparison.
- The actual distribution of resources, status, or opportunities and its institutional fairness.
- The comparison target's identity, possessions, achievements, or conduct as independent subjects.
- Harassment, sabotage, discrimination, or other conduct requiring its own action and accountability model.
Characteristics
- Attribution confidence
- self-described envy | tentative interpretation | disputed interpretation | insufficient evidence Prevents an agent from presenting a private emotional state as established by observation alone.
- Comparison configuration
- Experiencing person → comparison target → attributed advantage Identifies who is comparing themselves with whom and on what dimension.
- Advantage domain
- Resources | achievement | recognition | appearance | relationships | opportunity | other specified domain Locates the specific perceived advantage without assuming envy extends to the target's whole life.
- Perceived comparative gap
- Person's description; optional ordinal rating from negligible to very large, with scale recorded Separates the person's experienced disadvantage from an independently verified difference.
- Experienced intensity
- Optional self-rating from 0 to 10, with anchors and observation time recorded Supports within-person tracking without assuming ratings are comparable across people.
- Desired resolution
- Gain a similar advantage | reduce the target's advantage | change the comparison | withdraw | mixed | unclear Distinguishes different wishes that may accompany the same comparison.
- Perceived attainability
- Attainable | partly attainable | unattainable | uncertain, according to the person Helps assess whether pursuing a similar outcome is a meaningful response.
- Episode course
- Active | easing | recurring | reportedly resolved | unknown Distinguishes a current episode from a remembered experience or recurring pattern.
- Behavioural expression
- No action reported | constructive pursuit | avoidance | target-directed harm | other | unknown; multiple values allowed Keeps emotional experience, intention, and enacted behaviour separate.
Also called
Where this came from
wikidata · CC0 1.0
Drafted structure
Bundle to layer to finding to question, as the second pass will find it: 6 bundles · 11 layers · 18 findings · 28 questions.
Comparison and advantage Establishes the particular comparative situation around which the possible envy is organised.
An envy model needs an identifiable other, attributed advantage, and self-relevant gap rather than a generic record of unpleasant emotion.
Target and advantage
Identifies whose perceived advantage matters and what that advantage consists of.
Attributed advantage
Records the comparison target and the particular possession, position, experience, or quality attributed to them.
- Whose advantage is salient, and what exactly is the person believed to have? definition
- What information supports this attributed advantage, and which parts remain assumed or selectively presented? provenance
Self-relevant gap
Connects the target's advantage to the person's own wants and perceived position.
Meaning of disadvantage
Records what the comparison appears to imply about the person's opportunities, standing, or valued identity.
- What does the person believe they lack relative to the target, and why does that difference matter to them? definition
- Would the desired thing remain important if the person had never learned that this target possessed it? boundary
Experience and identification Records the felt comparison and the evidence for describing it as envy.
An agent must distinguish an acknowledged experience from an externally imposed explanation of someone's motives.
Reported experience
Captures the person's account of what they feel when the advantage becomes salient.
Felt comparative distress
Records discomfort associated with the comparison, including the person's own emotional vocabulary.
- How does the person describe their experience when attending to the target's advantage? definition
- How intense is that experience now, using the person's chosen scale and anchors? measurement
Interpretive boundaries
Tests the envy interpretation against nearby experiences and evidential limits.
Basis for envy attribution
Records who proposed the label, whether the person accepts it, and competing interpretations.
- Is envy the person's own description, another person's attribution, or an agent's tentative interpretation? provenance
- What supports envy rather than, or alongside, admiration, longing, jealousy, resentment, or disappointment? boundary
Appraisals and desired resolution Separates interpretations of the comparative gap from wishes about how it should change.
Similar comparisons can accompany different wishes; responses should depend on the person's actual appraisal and desired outcome.
Interpretation of the gap
Records perceived attainability and fairness without treating either appraisal as verified.
Attainability and deservingness
Captures whether the person believes a similar advantage is available to them and whether they regard the target's advantage as deserved.
- Does the person believe they could obtain a similar advantage, and what obstacles or opportunities inform that belief? definition
- Which fairness concerns concern an identifiable wrong, and which concern the difference in outcomes itself? boundary
Wishes about the advantage
Distinguishes self-directed aspirations, target-directed wishes, and a wish to leave the comparison.
Preferred change
Records the change the person wants without equating a wish with a plan or action.
- Would relief come from gaining something similar, the target losing it, receiving recognition, or no longer using this comparison? definition
- Which wishes, if any, have become intentions or concrete plans? action
Triggers and course Tracks when the comparison becomes salient and how the associated experience develops.
An agent needs to distinguish an isolated episode from a repeatedly activated comparison and judge changes against the person's own history.
Comparison activation
Identifies encounters, messages, or recollections associated with the onset or return of envy.
Salience trigger
Records what brought the target's advantage to attention and the surrounding context.
- What encounter, announcement, image, or recollection made this advantage salient? provenance
- How often does exposure to this target or advantage coincide with a renewed painful comparison? measurement
Persistence and change
Tracks duration, recurring attention, and changes in the significance of the gap.
Episode trajectory
Records whether the experience is easing, recurring, or persisting and what reportedly changed alongside it.
- How long does the experience last, and how frequently does attention return to this comparison? measurement
- When envy eased or intensified, what changed in the perceived gap, exposure to the target, or importance of the advantage? provenance
Responses and consequences Connects the experience to actual conduct, feasible responses, and observed outcomes.
Deciding what may be done requires separating emotion from conduct and assessing whether a response addresses the comparison without harming others.
Enacted response
Records behaviour following the comparison and limits claims about its motivation.
Conduct and attributed motive
Distinguishes observed pursuit, avoidance, disparagement, support, or interference from assumptions about why they occurred.
- What did the person actually do after the comparison, as distinct from what they felt or imagined doing? provenance
- What evidence connects that conduct to envy, and what other motives or circumstances could explain it? boundary
Response selection and review
Supports choosing and reviewing responses against the person's goals and effects on others.
Feasible response and outcome
Records an agreed response and whether it changes distress, comparative preoccupation, or relevant behaviour.
- Which feasible response fits the person's underlying goal: pursuing the advantage, changing the comparison standard, adjusting exposure, or discussing an unmet need? action
- After the response, what changed in comparative distress, attention to the target, progress toward the goal, and effects on others? measurement
Evidence and external alignment What the world already says about this thing, gathered so the model can be checked against it.
A model that cannot be lined up against existing standards, identifiers and practice cannot be adopted by anyone who already uses them.
Reported evidence
Findings from the breadth pass, kept separate from the structural claims.
Kinds and varieties
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Benign envy (upward comparison that motivates self-improvement without hostility toward the envied person)
- Malicious envy (upward comparison that motivates hostility, devaluation, or leveling-down of the envied person)
- Episodic or state envy (a bounded episode triggered by a specific comparison)
- Dispositional or trait envy (a stable tendency to make painful upward comparisons)
- Emulative envy (Protasi: the envied good is seen as obtainable; the envier tries to rise)
- Inert, aggressive, and spiteful envy (Protasi's remaining practical types, distinguished by perceived obtainability and focus on pulling the other down)
- Theological invidia / capital-sin envy (Christian moral theology: sorrow at another's good as such)
- Organizational or status envy (workplace, professional, and rank comparisons over pay, promotion, recognition, or proximity to power)
- Which of these kinds and varieties hold for the sense of envy this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Identifiers and schemes
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Wikidata - Q190558 - Item for the emotion/concept envy; distinct from jealousy (Q160270).
- DOI of a defining review - 10.1037/0033-2909.133.1.46 - Smith & Kim, Psychological Bulletin, 2007; not a naming authority, but the usual scholarly handle for the construct.
- Which of these identifiers and schemes hold for the sense of envy this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Standards and regulation
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Catechism of the Catholic Church (Libreria Editrice Vaticana / Holy See): envy treated as a capital sin under the tenth commandment (nn. 2538-2540).
- No ISO, IEC, or statutory product/taxonomic code governs envy as an object; civil law addresses downstream acts (harassment, undermining, violence), not the emotion itself.
- Which of these standards and regulation hold for the sense of envy this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Real-world use
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Clinical formulation: envy appears in accounts of narcissistic and borderline presentations, depressive rumination, and some personality assessments, but is not itself a diagnosis.
- Organizations: pay, promotion, and recognition comparisons; linked in occupational research to social undermining, knowledge hiding, and turnover intent.
- Consumer and media settings: advertising and social platforms that stage upward comparison (luxury, lifestyle, 'keeping up').
- Pastoral and moral education: confession, preaching, and virtue ethics treating invidia as a vice to be named and countered.
- Literary, political, and inequality talk: used to explain hostility to others' success, including 'tall poppy' and anti-elitism tropes.
- Which of these real-world use hold for the sense of envy this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Typical measurements
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Dispositional Envy Scale (DES) total (Smith et al., 8 items, 1-5 Likert) - possible 8-40; community samples typically sit in the lower-middle of the scale (roughly mid-teens to low-20s) - scale points
- Benign and Malicious Envy Scale (BeMaS) subscale scores (Lange & Crusius) - each subscale usually 5 items on a multi-point Likert; scores interpreted relatively within sample rather than against a clinical cut-off - scale points
- Episodic envy intensity (self-report in lab or experience-sampling studies) - 0-100 on a visual analogue / 1-7 Likert, highly situation-dependent - self-report intensity
- Which of these typical measurements hold for the sense of envy this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Failure modes and hazards
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Hostile leveling-down: gossip, sabotage, social undermining, or knowledge hiding aimed at the envied person.
- Self-erosion: rumination, shame, lowered self-worth, and depressive affect after repeated upward comparison.
- Schadenfreude and moral disengagement: pleasure at the other's setback used to justify unfair treatment.
- Consumptive or status competition: overspending, credential races, or risky display to close a felt gap.
- Relationship damage: withdrawal, coldness, or aggression toward peers, siblings, or partners misread as rivals.
- In extreme cases, envy can feed targeted harassment or violence; relationship-threat jealousy is the more typical pathway to intimate-partner harm, so the two must not be collapsed.
- Which of these failure modes and hazards hold for the sense of envy this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Regional variation
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Everyday English often uses jealousy for envy; many other languages keep a two-party versus three-party split more cleanly.
- Dutch, German, and some Slavic lexicons distinguish a more constructive 'benign' envy from a hostile form (e.g. Dutch benijden vs afgunst; German Neid vs Missgunst).
- Japanese 嫉妬 (shitto) commonly covers both envy and jealousy.
- Mediterranean, Latin American, and Middle Eastern 'evil eye' practices treat another's envy as a socially dangerous force to be warded, not only an inner feeling.
- Norms about being envied differ: Australian/NZ 'tall poppy' cutting-down versus Scandinavian Janteloven-style discouragement of standing out.
- Which of these regional variation hold for the sense of envy this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- jealousy - Jealousy is a three-party emotion: a valued relationship is threatened by a rival. Envy is two-party: pain at another's advantage, with no necessary third party or relationship at stake.
- admiration - Same upward comparison, but admiration lacks the sting of lack and the wish to take or level; the other's good is affirmed rather than experienced as a deficit of the self.
- emulation (Aristotle's zēlos) - Emulation is striving to acquire a similar good without hostility or sorrow at the other's having it; envy (phthonos) is pain that the other has it.
- greed / covetousness - Greed is appetite for goods as such. Envy is indexed to a particular other's holding; the pain can persist even when the good could be obtained another way.
- ressentiment - Ressentiment is a chronic, often hidden stance that devalues the envied good itself ('sour grapes') and moralizes the other's advantage; envy can be acute and still want the good.
- schadenfreude - Schadenfreude is pleasure at another's misfortune. It often follows malicious envy but is a distinct affective episode (gain from the other's loss, not pain at the other's gain).
- FOMO / social-comparison anxiety - Fear of missing out is diffuse anxiety about options or belonging, often without an identified envied person or a wish that they lose the good.
- Which of these neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart hold for the sense of envy this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Sources
- Comprehending Envy - Specialist definition of envy as pain at another's good fortune; review of antecedents, hostile and depressive consequences, and distinction from related affects.
- Distinguishing the Experiences of Envy and Jealousy - Empirical separation of envy (two-party, advantage-focused) from jealousy (three-party, relationship-threat-focused).
- Leveling Up and Down: The Experiences of Benign and Malicious Envy - The benign versus malicious envy distinction used in contemporary social psychology.
- Dispositional Envy Revisited: Unraveling the Motivational Dynamics of Benign and Malicious Envy - Trait measurement via the Benign and Malicious Envy Scale (BeMaS) and the motivational split between leveling-up and leveling-down.
- The Philosophy of Envy - Four-kind philosophical taxonomy (emulative, inert, aggressive, spiteful) and the claim that some envy can be morally and motivationally productive.
- Rhetoric, Book II (on phthonos and zēlos) - Classical neighbour-test: envy (phthonos) as pain at a peer's deserved good versus emulation (zēlos) as painless striving to match it.
- Catechism of the Catholic Church, nn. 2538-2540 (tenth commandment; envy as a capital sin) - Canonical/theological kind (invidia) and the moral-theological framing still used in pastoral practice.
What the second pass must settle
- What minimum evidence should justify a tentative envy attribution when the person has not described their own experience?
- Should constructive and hostile orientations be represented as subtypes of envy, dimensions within an episode, or consequences that can change independently?
- How should the model distinguish envy of an individual from envy directed at a group, imagined counterpart, or selectively presented online persona?
- Which measures of intensity, recurrence, and comparative preoccupation are suitable across languages and cultural contexts?
- How should mixed cases involving envy, a substantiated injustice, and relationship jealousy be linked across neighbouring models without allowing one interpretation to erase the others?