But it is actually the young who are the most jealous of each other, envious² of their friends' appearances, relationships, and social success, a new study has revealed.

 

It also appears that both men and women are more likely to envy someone who is approximately their own age and of the same gender³.

 

The research was carried out by psychology⁴ professor Christine Harris and graduate student Nicole Henniger from the University of California, San Diego and is published in the journal Basic and Applied⁵ Social Psychology.

 

The paper covers two studies: one that surveyed more than 900 people aged⁶ 18 to 80 on their own experiences of being envious, and another that asked 800 more in the same age range to remember when they had been the targets of envy.

 

Envy was a common experience. More than three quarters of the participants reported experiencing envy in the last year, with slightly more women (79.4 percent) than men (74.1 percent).

 

But they found that the experience declined with age.

 

Around 80 percent of people younger than 30 reported feeling envious in the last year. However, for those aged 50 and over, that figure went down to 69 percent.

 

Overwhelmingly, people envied others of their own gender.

 

'It surprised us how consistently men envied other men and women, women,' continued Professor Harris.

 

'Even in domains⁷ like financial and occupational success, where you can imagine that a woman might envy a man his better pay or status, that wasn't usually the case.'

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