Is it human nature for people to be envious?

Question

like human instinct. by what you know / observed.

Answer 1

Yea, but you need to control it.

Answer 2

I would think that it's human nature to. Because if we didn't want bigger and better things, whether material or not, what would push us to strive for the better? I don't think we would be so hard to push ourselves to have the things that we want or need if we weren't naturally envious of others. We would all just be comfortable with where we are in life... and we all have the potential to be/have the best in life. But we have to WANT it somehow in the first place right?

Answer 3

It is human nature to want more and want better. And that is a good thing. But it is not natural for us to be hating or jealous of others who have what we want. The natural state is for us to want for ourselves and to get it, but not at the expense of others. You can always tell if an emotion is 'normal' by how it feels. Envy feels bad, therefore it is not normal.

Answer 4

Yes. It might have something to do with survival of the fitest. If you see someone else doing better off than you (they have a loved one, a friendship, or an object that you'd like to have) then your brain will start trying to figure out how you could get to that place, and makes you jealous that you don't have it.

Answer 5

Envy can be bad is you don’t do anything but brood and cry about what other people have and you don’t or it can be a productive driving force to propel you towards stardom. I like the latter solution better.

Answer 6

I suppose so because I can't seem to stop it. I think society puts higher values on certain things/ traits which conditions us to 'want' those things and if we do not have them we don't like other people having them.

Answer 7

People always want bigger and better, and if they see someone else has it ... yes they will want it...

I think envy makes people strive harder to obtain things.

Not exactly jealousy, but I equate envy with coveting what someone else has.