Older women have often been portrayed as green-eyed monsters, envying the young and hankering after their own lost looks.

But it is actually the young who are the most jealous of each other, envious of their friends’ appearances, relationships, and social success, a new study has revealed. It also appears that both men and women are more likely to envy someone who is approximately their own age and of the same gender.

The research was carried out by psychology professor Christine Harris and graduate student Nicole Henniger from the University of California, San Diego.

Their paper covers two studies: one that surveyed more than 900 people aged 18 to 80 on their own experiences of being envious, and another that asked 800 more in the same age range to remember when they had been the targets of envy.

More than three quarters of the participants reported experiencing envy in the last year, with slightly more women (79.4 percent) than men (74.1 percent). But they found that the experience declined with age.

Around 80 percent of people younger than 30 reported feeling envious in the last year. However, for those aged 50 and over, that figure went down to 69 percent.

Overwhelmingly, people envied others of their own gender.

“It surprised us how consistently men envied other men and women, women,” continued Professor Harris.

“Even in domains like financial and occupational success, where you can imagine that a woman might envy a man his better pay or status, that wasn’t usually the case.”

The researchers found that what people envied also changed with age.

Young people said they felt most envious over looks and romance as well as achievement at school and social success.

Envy of monetary success and occupational success was common across all age groups, but these two domains were unique in being more often envied by older people.

年纪大的女人通常都被描述成嫉妒的人，她们嫉妒年轻女子，渴望拥有自己曾经的容貌。

事实上，新研究揭示，年轻人最爱嫉妒彼此，他们嫉妒朋友的容颜、爱情和社交的成功。还有一种现象，不管男人还是女人都倾向于嫉妒他们年纪相当以及同性别的人。

这项研究由加州大学圣地亚哥分校的心理学教授克莉丝汀•哈里斯以及研究生妮可•亨尼希共同实施。

论文包含了两个研究：一个是调查九百多名18岁至80岁的人关于自身嫉妒的经历，另一个是访问另外八百名同年龄段的人，让他们回忆自己什么时候被别人嫉妒。

研究报告，超过四分之三的调查参与者在最近的一年里嫉妒过别人，而其中女性嫉妒的比例为79.4%，略高于男

性，后者为74.1%。

在过去的一年里，年纪低于30岁的人群中有80%左右嫉妒过别人，而年纪超过50岁的人群中，这个比例降到了69%。

人们绝大多数嫉妒同性。

“男性嫉妒其他男性，而女性则嫉妒其他女性，这种高度的一致让我们惊讶。”

哈里斯教授说。

“即使是在诸如金融和职业成功这些方面，你想象女性可能会嫉妒男性有更高的薪资和更高的地位，但通常情况并不是这样。”

研究发现人们所嫉妒的事物也随年纪的变化而改变。

年轻人说他们最嫉妒别人的外貌和恋爱成功，也嫉妒学业和社交的成功。

对于拥有金钱和职业成功的嫉妒在各年龄群中都很常见，但是这两个方面独特之处在于，年长的人更容易因此嫉妒。

    Words to Learn 相关词汇

   【嫉妒的】jìdù de green-eyed jealous, envious

    【大约】dàyuē approximately close to, around, roughly or in the region of