Facts about Envy
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Psychologist Richard Smith's 2008 study found that people experiencing envy showed significantly increased cortisol levels, the stress hormone, measured through saliva samples compared to control groups.
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Shakespeare's play The Merchant of Venice, written between 1596 and 1597, explores envy as a central motivation driving Shylock's pursuit of revenge against Antonio throughout the five-act drama.
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Across 195 countries surveyed by Gallup between 2005 and 2019, envy consistently ranked among the top three emotions experienced daily, alongside worry and sadness, affecting approximately 27 percent of the global population.
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Bertrand Russell's 1930 work The Conquest of Happiness identified envy as one of the primary obstacles to human contentment and argued it stems from comparison rather than genuine deprivation.
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Neuroscientific research from the 2000s found that observing others' good fortune activates the anterior insula in the brain, the same region associated with physical pain, suggesting envy triggers a genuine neural distress response.
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Aristotle identified envy as a response to others' good fortune in his 4th-century BCE work Rhetoric, distinguishing it from jealousy by its focus on undeserved success rather than loss of possession.
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In Christian theology, envy is classified as one of the seven deadly sins alongside wrath, sloth, pride, greed, gluttony, and lust since at least the 6th century.
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The 1998 film Envy, directed by Barry Levinson and starring Ben Stiller and Jack Black, earned approximately 40 million dollars at the worldwide box office despite mixed critical reception.