It's Time to Re-evaluate Envy

Few emotions have such a low status as envy. Nobody wants to be perceived as envious. However, after reading a series of psychological studies, I have begun to reevaluate envy. This is because envy seems to strengthen our cognitive functions.

When researchers had close to 500 individuals read texts about successful fictional characters and describe whether they felt envy or admiration, the researchers found that those who experienced envy recorded more details about the fictional characters than those who experienced admiration. In another study, in which students took creativity tests, those who felt envy performed better than the ones who did not.

The results suggest that envy sharpens our mental faculties, such as memory and creativity, in a way that admiration does not. At the same time, admiration is a pleasant feeling, while envy feels unpleasant. The underlying neurobiological mechanism is probably that jealousy activates the cingulum, a part of the brain important for pain. The cingulum is not active when we feel admiration, which is therefore not painful.

Why, then, do we have something in our emotional repertoire that feels unpleasant but at the same time strengthens our cognition? Human psychology has not evolved for a life in anonymity in big cities but to live in small groups where you meet everyone again and again. In such groups, one's hierarchical position was probably very important. Envy is the brain's way of making sure we fight for our position in the group: I will step up to show that I am as good as him. To step up, our thinking abilities need to be sharpened, which is precisely what envy leads to, according to the studies.

But if envy sharpens us, why are we ashamed of it? I think this can be blamed on Pope Gregory I, who was pope between 590 and 604 and added envy to the list of deadly sins. One does not have to be particularly cynical to suspect that there was more than concern for the welfare of his subjects behind the decision.

During Gregory's time, large parts of Europe had become Christian. To hold this huge area together, social stability was needed. If people felt jealous of the privileges of priests, nobility, and kings, they questioned the existing social order, which risked leading to unrest. People's envy, therefore, needed to be suppressed. But how? By making it such a serious sin that anyone who feels it will burn in hell! Suddenly, a natural part of the human psyche was transformed into something that made one reprehensible—even condemned—as an individual. Echoes are heard in our days when envy is something that makes us ashamed.

My point is not that we should cultivate envy. It is, after all, the only deadly sin that isn't fun, and few emotions have such an ability to spoil one's mood. But one shouldn't feel like a bad person when one experiences envy.

So the next time you feel envious, remember that your cognitive abilities have been amped up and that you are particularly sharp at this moment. Instead of pushing envy away and feeling embarrassed, use it for something constructive.