The length of the document below is: 23 page(s) long
The self-declared author(s) is/are:
Author: Richard H. Smith
The subject is as follows:
Subject: Original authors did not specify.
The original URL is: LINK
The access date was:
Access date: 2019-02-26 22:09:50.978516
Please be aware that this may be under copyright restrictions. Please send an email to admin@pharmacoengineering.com for any AI-generated issues.
Loading...
Reload document 
Open in new tab The content is as follows:
2 Envy and Its Transmutations
Richard H. Smith A routine fact of life is that we
often meet people who are superior to us
in some way. When their supe
riority matters to us, we
can feel envy. Here is
Shakespeare’s Cassius, a literary prot
otype of the envying person, as he
protests the honors being heaped on Caesar:
Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world
Like a Colossus, and we petty men
Walk under his huge legs and peep about
To find ourselves dishonorable graves. (Shakespeare, 1599/1934, p. 41)
These words show an important qu
ality of envy. The envying person
notices another’s advantage or superiority and feels
inferior.
Caesar was an exceptional man who had achieved m
ilitary and political greatness, and
Cassius felt undersized and trivial next
to his grand presence. Envy begins
with an unflattering social comparison resulting in a quick, painful perception
of inferiority (e.g., Foster,
1972; Parrott,
1991; Salovey & Rodin,
1984
; Silver & Sabini,
1978;
Smith, 1991; Smith et al., 1999). It is worth dwelling on why an unflattering social comparison might catch
our attention and then create a pain
ful emotion such as envy. From an
evolutionary point of view, it is hi
ghly adaptive for people to have an
inclination to scan their environment for threats of all kinds. In terms of
potential threats from others, this al
so means that people should have the
capacity and the inclination to assess their rank (e.g., Beach
& Tesser,
2000; Buunk & Ybema, 1997; Frank,
1999;
Gilbert,
1999;
Smith,
2000). This would be
especially true in situations where group members must compete for limited resources tied to sustenan
ce and mating, as may ha
ve been typical when
current human tendencies evolved (e.g., Gilbert,
1999). Low ranking signals
that one should act submissively; high
ranking enables dominance. There are
potentially severe consequences for misjudging rank. Individuals who believe
they can dominate a group, when in fact they cannot, will find
Please note all content on this page was automatically generated via our AI-based algorithm (BishopKingdom ID: 0f2FQKSNPRkz5b3qunnp). Please let us know if you find any errors.