Envious People: These 8 Psychological Characteristics Define Them
Personal relationships have a double edge. On the one hand, they allow us to obtain the affection and protection that the company of friends and family gives us, as well as the products and services that others seek. But, on the other hand, they increase our chances of entering into conflict.
Envious people are a constant source of conflict , among other things, because it is not even necessary to come into direct contact with them. Knowing how to recognize them is very useful, since it allows you to either help them get out of that relational dynamic or take into account their predisposition to avoid short-term problems.
In everyday life we usually hide those characteristics that we know are frowned upon. Envious people do it too, but in any case it is possible to recognize those signs that identify them as such. Let’s see what they are.
1. Self-esteem based on attention
The self-esteem of envious people is based especially on appearances, aesthetics. This makes them easy to compare with others , since our appearance, our charisma and other qualities based on appearances are easily recognizable, even if we do not expressly pay attention to them. We simply value them automatically in a matter of seconds.
Thus, envious people are capable of being attacked simply by the aesthetics of people whom they consider better than them without even knowing them.
2. Use of platitude-based mockery
Envious people can use any resource to humiliate someone they consider their rival, and this is noticeable in the criticism they make of others. Their negative comments about other people often have no substance and are limited to insinuating supposed qualities that are often not even negative from a rational perspective.
For example, they may resort to accusing someone of being a vegetarian, or homosexual, or for not having a car. They are comments that portray more of the person who utters them than the person to whom they are directed, but They take advantage of historical unpopularity that does not need to be justified (in the case of homosexuality, it goes far beyond being simple unpopularity, there are propaganda campaigns aimed at fanning hatred against them).
3. Undermining the merits of others
Whether they participated in it or not, envious people tend to attribute the success of others to luck or the intermediation of other people. The idea is avoid as much as possible that someone in your environment stands out too much and if to do so they must spread rumors about less than noble methods designed to climb the organizational charts or to gain fame, they will do so anyway.
4. Discouragement
When faced with exciting projects from others, envious people They try to dissuade them from trying , normally appealing to “reasonableness” and “rationality”, that is, they encourage people to question their own abilities. This is done systematically, regardless of whether these initiatives are realistic or not.
Although this is not as common as the rest of the characteristics, in some envious people who are also very narcissistic, it happens that They try to make everyone see their achievements to, thus, gain positions in that constant competition that they believe is social life.
6. Machiavellian vision of friendship
Envious people can see many of their friends as a means to enjoy a better image and be at the same level of popularity as “the rivals.” For this reason, they try to make the people in their close circle moderately popular and respected, although not excessively, since if this were the case, the situation would create new rivalries.
7. Constant defensive attitude
Another characteristic of envious people is that they do not limit themselves to attacking others, but they also expect others to do the same to them. That is why with great ease They can interpret everything as an attack or a personal offense
In other words, any attempt to do something that draws positive attention is interpreted as a threat to the power one has in a particular social circle. The same thing happens when, without looking for it, someone exhibits a quality that unintentionally produces admiration in others.
8. Forced congratulations
At the moment when out of courtesy they must congratulate someone for having achieved something meritorious, they do it in a mechanical way, and they show a certain overacting In these cases they do not have to try to belittle the other, they simply “go through the hard time” waiting for another favorable moment to appear to attack.
In some cases, someone from the envious people’s environment gains a certain reputation and becomes a public figure. In these cases, those who feel envy and manage it poorly They can take advantage of the fact that they met that celebrity in the past to spread rumors about her and achieve a double effect: damaging her image and receiving attention for having information about that popular person.
