How envy affects our motivation to help others
Scientific litsketch on boosting motivation
Research shows that when we feel like we have achieved more success than others, and worry that others would feel envious of our success to the extent that they want to bring us down, we become more motivated to help them (Van de ven et al., 2010).
In an experiment, people were divided into two groups. Group One was given difficult multiple questions, after which they were given 5 euros as a bonus for their performance no matter what they actually answered correctly. Group One was also told that another participant who was paired with them in the experiment did not receive the bonus. This was done so that Group One could feel the fear of being envied by the other participant. Group Two was also given 5 euros as a bonus but was also told that another participant did receive the bonus as well. After this, both groups were given another set of seven multiple choice questions, but this time, a preprogrammed computer robot, which was described as another participant in the experiment, sent a message asking for their help with each of the seven questions. Both groups could either help the other participant by sharing their answer to each question, say that they do not know the answer, or decide not to help at all.
The results showed that Group One that was made to feel the fear of being envied by the other participant, helped the other participant more than Group Two.
When we feel the fear of being envied by others after achieving more successes than others, we tend to spend more effort to help them to maintain better relationships with them. When we need a boost in our motivation to work to help others, we can think about our current successes that we have achieved, and see that others might be envious of our achievements. This fear of being envied by others will give us a motivational boost to work harder to help others more.
Van de Ven, Niels, Marcel Zeelenberg, and Rik Pieters. "Warding off the evil eye: When the fear of being envied increases prosocial behavior." Psychological Science 21, no. 11 (2010): 1671-1677.