Formalwear for a hotter world? Coors Light introduces Cold Tux and BrrrTie
-
[image: A man wearing a light blue suit holds open his jacket to reveal a
high-tech interior with a digital temperature display and glowing blue
Coors Lig...
Saturday, December 18, 2010
Warding Off the Evil Eye When the Fear of Being Envied Increases Prosocial Behavior
The fear of being envied makes people act prosocially, in an attempt to ward off the potentially destructive effects of envy. In three experiments, people who were in a superior position and could be envied were more likely than control participants to give time-consuming advice to a potentially envious person or to help a potentially envious person pick up erasers she had accidentally scattered. However, helping behavior increased only if envy was likely to be malicious rather than benign. People who were better off did not increase their helping behavior toward people in general, but increased their helping only toward the potentially envious. This finding is consistent with the idea that the better off act more prosocially as an appeasement strategy. The fear of being envied serves useful group functions, because it triggers prosocial behavior that is likely to dampen the potentially destructive effects of envy and simultaneously helps to improve the situation of people who are worse off.o