Yang Chen, Yang Xue, Liu Yan-Qian
School of Psychology, Fujian Normal University, Fuzhou, 350108, China.
School of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China.
BMC Psychol. 2025 May 22;13(1):544. doi: 10.1186/s40359-025-02869-9.
This study examined the role of envy in socially anxious situations and its impact on risky appearance management behaviors (AMBs). The primary goal was to determine whether envy mediates the relationship between state social anxiety and non-routine AMBs.
Three experiments were conducted. Study 1 (Study 1a: n = 140; Study 1b: n = 162) induced social anxiety using two different paradigms, revealing that individuals in a socially anxious state reported increased envy, leading to a higher willingness to engage in risky skin management, diet pill use, and cosmetic surgery compared to the control condition. Study 2 (n = 99) directly manipulated envy and found that participants primed with envy were more prone to participating in non-routine AMBs than those in a neutral condition.
Overall, the findings showed that social anxiety triggered heightened envy, which mediated the association between state social anxiety and non-routine AMBs. Furthermore, envy also exerted a direct influence on these behaviors.
The study enhances our comprehension of the interplay between social anxiety and envy, providing a foundation for future exploration into how these emotions intertwine and shape both mental health and risk behaviors. Concretely, our findings uncover various avenues for exploring how social anxiety interacts with distinct emotions, impacting individuals' psychological and behavioral well-being.
本研究考察了嫉妒在社交焦虑情境中的作用及其对冒险性外表管理行为（AMB）的影响。主要目标是确定嫉妒是否介导了状态社交焦虑与非常规AMB之间的关系。
进行了三项实验。研究1（研究1a：n = 140；研究1b：n = 162）使用两种不同范式诱发社交焦虑，结果显示处于社交焦虑状态的个体报告嫉妒增加，与对照条件相比，他们更愿意进行冒险性皮肤管理、使用减肥药和接受整容手术。研究2（n = 99）直接操纵嫉妒，发现被激发嫉妒情绪的参与者比处于中性状态的参与者更倾向于参与非常规AMB。
总体而言，研究结果表明社交焦虑引发了更强烈的嫉妒，嫉妒介导了状态社交焦虑与非常规AMB之间的关联。此外，嫉妒也对这些行为产生了直接影响。
该研究增进了我们对社交焦虑与嫉妒之间相互作用的理解，为未来探索这些情绪如何相互交织并塑造心理健康和风险行为奠定了基础。具体而言，我们的研究结果揭示了各种途径，可用于探究社交焦虑如何与不同情绪相互作用，影响个体的心理和行为健康。
