The emotions of jealousy and envy both cast a hungry eye, but with different appetites. In 1993, social psychologists W. Gerrod Parrott and Richard H. Smith conducted a study into the perceived differences between jealousy and envy. What they discovered was that people consistently distinguished between the two feelings, describing envy as a longing for what we don’t have, while defining jealousy as a fear of losing what we already have.
It isn’t just material possessions that the envious covet. People can feel envy of someone else’s lifestyle, or even their psychological identity. Like The Cure, the envious ask, Why Can’t I Be You?
The word envy comes from the French en vie, meaning literally to have something in view. The phrase came to refer to a desiring glance cast at something beyond the viewer’s grasp.
Envy rarely leads to possession. It is an emotion of the thwarted, of those who desire, but understand that they are not capable of obtaining what they want. It is a mournful feeling, grieving what never will be.
