Envy: Functional specificity and sex-differentiated design features

► Envy is functionally-tuned in ways that are sex-specific. ► The advantages that elicit envy correspond to major classes of adaptive challenges. ► Envy is often directed at same-sex others with mating-relevant advantages. In two studies, we explore causal domains of envy and test predictions about whether it is sex differentiated in nature. Study 1 explored the contexts in which envy is most frequently experienced by men and women. Study 2 built on these results, explicitly testing predictions about sex differences in envy. The results provide needed insight into sex differences in envy and provide the basis for a deeper understanding of the function served by this unpleasant emotion.