Emotional intelligence shapes the motivational direction of envy

Envy is commonly labeled a negative emotion, yet research distinguishes between benign envy, which motivates self-improvement, and malicious envy, which motivates hostility and derogation. Although both forms are unpleasant, they differ in their motivational consequences. Emotional intelligence (EI) has been linked to adaptive emotional functioning, but little is known about whether ability-based emotion regulation predicts the motivational orientation of envy. In a community sample of French adults (N = 442), we examined whether performance-based emotion regulation ability, assessed within the QEg (Generalized QEPro Ability Measure of Emotional Intelligence) model, predicted benign and malicious envy while controlling for attachment orientation, self-esteem, age, and gender. Regression and structural equation modeling analyses showed that emotion regulation ability positively predicted benign envy (β = 0.165; β = 0.192 in SEM) but was unrelated to malicious envy. A latent SEM comparison further indicated that the association with benign envy was significantly stronger than that with malicious envy. Exploratory analyses of the six additional QEg abilities showed that emotion regulation exhibited the strongest association with benign envy. These findings suggest that emotion regulation ability may shape the functional direction of unpleasant emotions rather than their occurrence or intensity, orienting envy toward constructive rather than destructive outcomes.