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The purpose of this paper is to explore the prevalence of benign and malicious envy on social media, and to examine the relationships between shared content (experiential vs material purchases), envy type (benign vs malicious), and purchase intention (toward the same vs a superior object).

Three studies (N=622) were conducted to ask participants to recall the last time they experienced envy due to browsing social media, report an envy-triggering post about either an experiential or a material purchase shared by others and read a post about a friend’s newly bought MacBook in either an experiential or a material phrasing. The degrees of benign and malicious envy were measured, as well as the future purchase intentions toward the same and a superior object.

The results showed that most of the envious emotions were actually benign envy. Although there was no main effect of purchase type on envy type, both experiential purchases and phrasings were less likely to be perceived as showing off, and therefore triggered less malicious envy. Furthermore, benign envy was positively associated with the purchase intention of the same envied purchase, and malicious envy was positively associated with the purchase intention of something even superior.

As browsing other’s social news sometimes evokes envy, people were concerned about the negative effects of envy on consumers. However, this paper addressed the positive effects of envy which comes along with a motivation of moving up. This positive motivation can also be utilized for social media advertising.

Four months after I got to America, I was invited to a Christmas party. I brought some chicken wings stir-fried with wine, soybean sauce, sugar and ginger, partly to show appreciation to my new friend, partly out of my smug thought that I was here on a mission to bring authentic Chinese food to American people. Yet the chicken wings were removed from the table not long after the party began, even when there were still plenty of them. Those that were already in people’s plates were at most lightly touched. I moved among people pretending to have a good time yet feeling bashful, defeated and dismayed. How come the other Chinese lady knew better? She brought in a pretty fruit pie, the kind that has cream, peach, strawberry and nuts in it.What we found great about CM grocery store was that they have some rare kinds of ethnic foods. It happened that day that my husband, Li, and I wanted some pig’s feet. In China, this part of pigs is a special delicacy. It is our belief that slowly cooked pig’s feet are desirable for preventing skin aging and for women who just give birth to babies. As we checked out, the cashier, a tall, young man, picked them up, examined for a second and made a light remark, “Dog food!” It was so soft that Li did not hear. The boy had such light blue eyes and light freckles on his face. I found myself scouring my brain for words to say but could not come up with anything.No more showing off of my food! Shawn and Jill¹ just had three new-born babies. To help them out, some of us in the department took turns to contribute food. They are a very easy-going couple and they said they liked ethnic foods. Still I got restless when it was my turn. After some careful rumination, I ordered a vegetable pizza from Papa John’s.