Self-esteem and envy: Is state self-esteem instability associated with the benign and malicious forms of envy?

The purpose of the present research was to investigate whether trait self-esteem level and state self-esteem instability were associated with benign envy (i.e., the desire to improve one's own position) and malicious envy (i.e., the desire to damage a superior person's position). In the current study (N = 182), we extend previous research in this area by examining the possibility that state self-esteem instability would moderate the associations that trait self-esteem level had with the benign and malicious forms of envy. The results indicate that (1) trait self-esteem level was negatively associated with both benign and malicious envy, (2) state self-esteem instability was positively associated with benign envy, and (3) state self-esteem instability moderated the association between trait self-esteem level and malicious envy such that individuals with stable high self-esteem reported lower levels of malicious envy compared to those with unstable high self-esteem or low levels of trait self-esteem (regardless of whether their low self-esteem was stable or unstable). Taken together, these findings suggest that trait self-esteem level and state self-esteem instability have important connections with the benign and malicious forms of envy.