The double-edged sword effect of social comparison orientation on college students’ creativity from the perspective of envy

IntroductionWhile social comparison orientation has been established as an important antecedent to creative performance, existing research mainly focuses on its connection with general creativity (i.e., generating novel and useful ideas that benefit others), largely ignoring its potential link to malevolent creativity (i.e., generating novel ideas intended to harm others). This gap limits a comprehensive understanding of the double-edged motivational consequences of social comparison.MethodsDrawing on social comparison theory and the dual-pathway model of envy, the current study tests a moderated dual-mediation model in which benign envy and malicious envy mediate the relationship between social comparison orientation and two types of creativity (general vs. malevolent), and a mastery motivational climate moderates these indirect paths.ResultsThree-wave lag survey results show that social comparison orientation positively predicts both benign and malicious envy. Benign envy mediates the relationship between social comparison orientation and general creativity, whereas malicious envy mediates the relationship between social comparison orientation and malevolent creativity. Moderated mediation analyses further indicate that a mastery motivational climate significantly attenuates the indirect effect of social comparison orientation on malevolent creativity via malicious envy, but does not moderate the indirect effect of benign envy on general creativity.DiscussionThese findings highlight the double-edged role of envy in transforming social comparison into distinct creative outcomes, and carry practical implications for educational environments seeking to foster constructive creativity while curbing its harmful forms.