????我們現在要討論的情形真是再熟悉不過了：當你發現，自己一直以來努力爭取的升職機會給了一位經驗不如自己、而且入職時間還比你短的同事時，你的心里就像打翻了五味瓶。你的內心充滿了嫉妒。如果能與勝出者握手祝賀，固然是好，但這樣的情況鮮有發生。

????現年46歲的Happy Brain Science創始人斯科特?克拉布特里回想起了自己當年的這種感受。當時，他在一家科技公司擔任管理職位，他新招的一個員工談下的薪水只比他當時低了幾千美元。他說：“我發現他剛畢業拿到的薪水已直逼我花幾十年功夫才達到的水平。”

????克拉布特里經過很多低薪和不那么誘人的工作才獲得成功，面對這位迅速獲得高薪職位的下屬，他的心里非常不平衡。“心情不好的結果是我減少了對工作的付出。”

????想到將要管理一個他如此嫉妒的人，克拉布里特心情很低落，最終促使他另尋高就。后來他創立了自己的企業。他說，這源于他意識到不斷與他人攀比只會帶來不快——而不快樂的員工為公司創造的投資回報自然會下降。

????因此，如果最終結果是敵意和工作滿意度下降，是不是就等于說，嫉妒總是壞事呢？不盡然。

????2011年，一份名為《為什么嫉妒勝于欽佩》(Why Envy Outperforms Admiration）的研究報告稱，如果疏導得當，嫉妒可以激發人們的積極性，提高生產率。研究人員尼爾斯?凡德馮和馬塞爾?齊林伯格將嫉妒分為兩大類：惡意嫉妒，導致譴責和排斥競爭；善意嫉妒，激發效仿和競爭。

????嫉妒的核心是將自己與他人相比較，凡德馮和齊林伯格對善意嫉妒的研究認定，相互比較可以促使人們更努力地工作，實現更高的目標。

????以職業運動為例。“本質上，運動員的一部分工作就是看其他人如何表現，努力趕超，”27歲的職業擊劍運動員本?布拉頓說。他是2012年基輔世界擊劍錦標賽（2012 Kiev World Fencing Championships）金牌得主。

????干布拉頓這一行，只有懷著不斷挑戰國家級、世界級和奧運會級別的競爭動力，才能脫穎而出，奪得冠軍。這種嫉妒是超越競爭對手的強烈渴望，它不一定是壞事。

????“如果你對自己的表現滿意，就很難有動力更加努力、付出更多，”得克薩斯大學（University of Texas）奧斯汀分校心理學教授阿特?馬克曼表示。“事實上，需要一些不安來推動你實現更高的成就。運動員就常常這樣做，他們會找一位競爭對手，以勝過這名對手為目標。”

????布拉頓承認在看到隊友排名靠前時，他有過一段自我懷疑的時期。布拉頓說：“那時，我讓其他人給我設定標準。事實是，面對競爭對手充滿負面情緒并無用處，它只會將人的注意力從終極目標——自己的成功上轉移開。”

????當他看到隊友達到更高水平時，布拉頓表示，他意識到自己是多么渴望達到他們的水平。不再內心充滿嫉妒，布拉頓采取了積極的態度，而是自問：“他們做了什么我沒做的事情？隨著嫉妒消失，我也更上一層樓。效果可謂立竿見影。”

????It's all too familiar -- that sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach when you discover that the promotion you have been vying for went to a colleague with less experience and fewer years at your company. You're consumed with envy, and while it would be great to end the day with a "best-man-won" handshake, it rarely goes that way.

????Scott Crabtree, 46, founder of Happy Brain Science, recalls the feeling when he was holding down a managerial position at a tech company when his new hire negotiated a salary that was just a few thousand short of his current pay. "I realized he was going to get a salary right out of school that took me decades to reach," he says.

????Crabtree, who had schlepped his way through numerous low paying and less glamorous jobs, grew resentful of the subordinate who'd essentially taken a short cut to a very high-paying position. "Feeling bad resulted in me putting in less effort."

????Crabtree grew depressed at the prospect of having to manage someone whom he was so envious of and this ultimately forced him to seek job satisfaction elsewhere. He eventually founded his own business, which he says stemmed from the realization that the constant comparison to others only created unhappiness – and, of course, unhappy employees yield less return on investment for the company.

????So if hostility and job dissatisfaction is the end result, does this mean that envy is always a bad thing? Not quite.

????According to a 2011 study called "Why Envy Outperforms Admiration," if channeled appropriately, envy can motivate people and boost productivity. Researchers Niels van de Van and Marcel Zeelenberg separate envy into two categories: malicious envy, which seeks to condemn and remove the competition, and benign envy, which is the desire to emulate and admire the competition.

????At the heart of envy is comparing oneself against others, and van de Van and Zeelenberg's study of benign envy asserts that comparison can drive someone to work harder to achieve more impressive goals.

????Take professional sports. "In essence, part of your job as an athlete is to look at how the other guy is performing and to try and outdo them," says Ben Bratton, 27, a professional fencer and gold medalist in the 2012 Kiev World Fencing Championships.

????In Bratton's line of work, the competitive drive to reach the national, world, and Olympic levels separates the champions from the runners-up. That envy, that aspiration to best your competitors, does not have to be malicious.

????"When you are happy with your performance, then it is hard to be motivated to work harder and to do more," says Art Markman, psychology professor at University of Texas at Austin. "Instead, you need some discomfort to push yourself to a higher level of achievement. Athletes often do this by finding a rival and setting the goal to outwork that rival."

????Bratton admits that he went through a period of self-doubt when he saw his teammates rank higher in the standings. "I was letting other people set the standard for me. The thing is, being consumed with negative feelings about a peer does nothing but take your eye off the ultimate prize -- your own success," says Bratton.

????When Bratton saw his teammates reach a higher plateau, he says he realized how badly he wanted to be where they were. Instead of being consumed by the envy, Bratton was able to put a positive spin by asking himself, "What are they doing that I'm not doing? By letting go of my jealousy I raised the bar for myself. The results were almost instantaneous," he says.