Envy Test: Find Out Whether Your Envy Pushes You Up or Pulls Others Down
Envy comes in two forms: benign envy says 'I want that too' and gets you moving, while malicious envy says 'they shouldn't have it' and wants them to lose. This test scores both, tells you which leads for you, and gives you an instant result plus a PDF.
Reviewed by Michael Callans, MSW 
Envy Test: Benign vs Malicious Envy is a free, confidential 18-question self-assessment, original items informed by the benign and malicious envy model. It takes about 5 minutes, runs entirely in your browser, and gives you a plain-language profile of your strongest style plus an optional in-depth report. It is an educational screening, not a diagnosis.
Two forms of envy, not one shameful feeling
Research by Niels van de Ven and colleagues showed that envy splits cleanly into two experiences with different motives and different consequences. This test scores both so you can see your mix, names the one that leads, and is honest about the fact that nearly everyone feels some of each. The reading also explains what each form is trying to tell you.
Benign envy
The upward pull: admiring what someone has, feeling the sting of not having it, and turning that sting into effort. Benign envy is uncomfortable and useful; it tells you what you want.
Malicious envy
The downward pull: feeling that the other person does not deserve it, hoping they lose it, and feeling a flicker of pleasure when they stumble. Malicious envy wants to level the field by lowering them.
Your mix and what it is telling you
Which form leads, how close the two are, and how to read envy as information about your wants and your sense of fairness rather than as a flaw to hide.
| Feature | Typical free quiz | Psychology.com |
|---|---|---|
| Based on the two-form model from envy research | Rarely | Yes, benign and malicious scored separately |
| Explains envy vs jealousy | Often confused | Yes, two-person vs three-person |
| Original items, no copied proprietary content | Often unclear | Yes, 18 original statements |
| Treats envy as information, not a verdict | Shame or a joke | Yes, with concrete next steps |
| Clinician-reviewed interpretation | Rarely | Yes, clinician reviewed |
| Optional in-depth personalized report | No | Yes, written to your exact scores |
| Answers stay on your device | Often collected | Scored in your browser; only summary scores if you request a PDF or report |
The 2 patterns this test measures
- Benign envy: Admiration that motivates: 'I want that too, and I could get there.'
- Malicious envy: Resentment that wants to level the field: 'they shouldn't have it.'
If nothing is endorsed, every pattern scores the same, or the leading patterns tie, the result says so instead of naming a single pattern.
How the envy test is scored
The test has 18 statements about how you react when someone has something you want: 9 describe benign envy and 9 describe malicious envy. Each is rated on a five-point agreement scale from 0 to 4, so each form can score up to 36. The engine converts both to a percentage, shows them as two bars, and names the higher one as your leading form. If the two come out equal, the result says so instead of picking one, because a tie is a real and common outcome.
Two things are worth knowing before you read your result. First, the two forms are independent: a person can be high on both, low on both, or anywhere in between, so a high benign score does not mean a low malicious one. Second, this is an educational self-assessment built from our own statements. The Benign and Malicious Envy Scale (BeMaS) by Jens Lange and Jan Crusius is the validated research measure of the same two dispositions; we name it here so you know where the model comes from, but this test does not reproduce it, and our bars are not BeMaS scores.
Envy vs jealousy: two people or three
The words get used interchangeably, and they describe different situations. Envy involves two people: you, and someone who has something you want, whether that is a promotion, a body, a relationship, or an ease you lack. Jealousy involves three: you, someone you have, and a rival who threatens to take them. Envy is about lacking; jealousy is about losing. You can feel both at once, since the person your partner is drawn to may also have qualities you envy, but the feelings have different shapes and different remedies. If what brought you here is fear of losing someone rather than wanting what someone else has, our Jealousy Test is the better fit.
Envy also runs close to insecurity and low self-worth, because the sting of comparison lands hardest where you already doubt yourself. If your malicious score is high and you recognize a general sense of not measuring up, Insecurity Test and Self-Esteem Test are worth taking alongside this one. And if your benign envy is pointed at people whose achievements you quietly believe you could never match, Imposter Syndrome Test may explain why admiration keeps turning into discouragement instead of effort. Envy of other people is also one of the classic features of narcissism, where another person's success lands as a personal insult; the Narcissism Test looks at that wider pattern.
The benign and malicious envy model, and why social media turns up the dial
In 2009, Niels van de Ven, Marcel Zeelenberg, and Rik Pieters published studies showing that what English lumps together as envy is experienced as two distinct emotions, and that languages such as Dutch and Polish have separate words for them. Benign envy comes with admiration and a wish to improve; people feeling it reported working harder and planning to move up. Malicious envy comes with a sense of injustice and ill will; people feeling it wanted the other person brought down and sometimes enjoyed their misfortune. Which form you feel depends heavily on whether the other person's advantage seems deserved and whether it seems reachable: a deserved, reachable advantage tends to produce benign envy, an undeserved or unreachable one tends to produce the malicious kind. Lange and Crusius later showed the two also run as stable dispositions, with benign envy linked to hope for success and malicious envy to fear of failure.
Social media is an envy machine for structural reasons. It presents an endless supply of upward comparisons, edited to look effortless, from people close enough in age and circumstance to feel like fair comparisons. Effortlessness matters: when success looks easy and unearned, it tilts envy toward the malicious form. A useful experiment is to notice which accounts leave you wanting to do something and which leave you wanting the person to fail, and to adjust your feed accordingly. That is not avoidance; it is choosing your comparisons on purpose.
What to do with envy
Envy is one of the most accurate signals you have about what you want, and it is almost always wasted because people are ashamed of it. The practical move is to treat it as data. When you feel the sting, ask what, specifically, you want: not the person's whole life, but the piece of it that stung. Then ask whether that thing is reachable for you, and if so, what one step toward it looks like. Benign envy is already doing this work; the task is to let it finish, rather than cutting it off with 'I shouldn't feel this'.
Malicious envy needs one extra step first, because it has a judgment folded into it: that the other person does not deserve what they have. Sometimes that judgment is correct, and the feeling is really about unfairness, which is a different problem with different solutions. Often it is a way of protecting yourself from the harder thought that the thing is reachable and you have not reached for it. Either way, naming the judgment out loud takes much of the heat out. If envy has become a constant background noise, if it is damaging friendships, or if you notice it spreading into contempt for most of the people around you, that is a good point to talk it through with a therapist. Our Life Satisfaction Test can also help you see whether the comparisons are measuring you against what you actually value.
Methodology & sources
This test is informed by the benign and malicious envy model established by van de Ven, Zeelenberg, and Pieters (2009), which showed that envy is experienced as two distinct emotions with different motivations: benign envy, which comes with admiration and a drive to improve one's own position, and malicious envy, which comes with resentment and a wish to pull the envied person down. Lange and Crusius (2015) extended this to stable individual differences and built the Benign and Malicious Envy Scale (BeMaS) to measure them. We name the BeMaS so you know where the model comes from; this test does not reproduce it. The 18 statements here, 9 per form, are original and were written for Psychology.com.
Each statement is rated on a five-point agreement scale from 0 to 4 and the engine sums each form's score, converts both to a percentage, and names the higher one as your leading form, showing both bars so you can read your mix. Ties and flat results are reported honestly rather than resolved by default. This is an educational self-assessment for reflection on how you experience envy; it is not the validated BeMaS, not a clinical instrument, and not a diagnosis of anything.
References
- van de Ven N, Zeelenberg M, Pieters R. Leveling up and down: the experiences of benign and malicious envy. Emotion. 2009;9(3):419-429. doi.org/10.1037/a0015669
- Lange J, Crusius J. Dispositional envy revisited: unraveling the motivational dynamics of benign and malicious envy. Pers Soc Psychol Bull. 2015;41(2):284-294. doi.org/10.1177/0146167214564959
- Smith RH, Kim SH. Comprehending envy. Psychol Bull. 2007;133(1):46-64. doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.133.1.46
Cite this source
Psychology.com. (2026, October 5). Envy Test: Benign vs Malicious Envy. Psychology.com. https://psychology.com/tests/envy
Envy Test: Benign vs Malicious Envy FAQ
What is the difference between benign and malicious envy?
Both start with wanting something someone else has. Benign envy adds admiration and turns the sting into effort: you want to get there too. Malicious envy adds a sense that the other person does not deserve it and wants them to lose it. Research shows they are separate emotions, with different motives and different consequences, and most people feel both at different times.
Is envy the same as jealousy?
No. Envy involves two people: you and someone who has something you want. Jealousy involves three: you, someone you have, and a rival who threatens to take them. Envy is about lacking; jealousy is about losing. If fear of losing someone is what brought you here, our Jealousy Test is the better fit.
Is it bad to feel envy?
Feeling it is universal and not a flaw. Envy is a reliable signal about what you want and about whether you think the world is fair. The question is what you do with it. Benign envy mostly looks after itself if you let it; malicious envy is worth examining, because the judgment folded into it is sometimes accurate and sometimes a way of avoiding the thought that the thing is reachable.
Why does social media make me so envious?
It supplies endless upward comparisons, edited to look effortless, from people similar enough to you to feel like fair comparisons. Effortlessness pushes envy toward the malicious form, because unearned advantage feels unjust. Noticing which accounts leave you motivated and which leave you wanting someone to fail, and adjusting your feed, is a legitimate way to choose your comparisons.
Is the test really confidential?
Yes. It runs entirely in your browser. Your individual answers are scored in your browser and are never sent to us or linked to you. They stay in this tab so you can return to your result, and closing or clearing the tab clears them. If you ask us to email the PDF, we receive your summary scores with your email address, never your individual answers. No account is needed.
Does this test use the BeMaS?
No. The Benign and Malicious Envy Scale by Lange and Crusius is the validated research measure of these two dispositions, and we name it so you know where the model comes from. Our 18 statements are original, and your bars are not BeMaS scores. If your envy feels constant or is harming your relationships, our Insecurity Test and a conversation with a therapist are good next steps.
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