Envy is a painful emotion that can negatively impact one’s self-worth. It is also a shameful, socially undesirable emotion, implying both inferiority and hostility. Some scholars suggest that these features of envy lead to a need to cope with the emotion. Thus, over time, envy tends to be transformed into more socially acceptable responses such as resentment or dislike. The present study tested this claim. First, envy was manipulated by asking participants to read an article containing an interview with either a high- or low-envy target. The second article manipulated the likeability of the target by varying whether or not he or she made an arrogant statement. Finally, a third article indicated that the target had suffered a misfortune. Although, as predicted, envy decreased, the manipulation of likeability did not affect this decrease. Consistent with predictions, resentment increased after the second article and this was more likely when the target was dislikeable than when the target was likeable. Finally, the participants felt greater schadenfreude when the dislikeable target suffered than when the likeable target suffered and marginally more schadenfreude when the target was more enviable. Clearly, envy dissipated over time, but further research is needed to determine precisely why.

In times where acts of extremism are becoming increasingly evident an interest for the individuals who perform such acts has begun to take shape. Most people who engage in extreme organizations tend to eventually leave them, yet there is still uncertainty about why and how people manage to do so. The purpose of this study was to add to the understanding of defection processes from the White Power movement by studying how emotions and relationships contribute to such processes. Using Herbert Blumer's symbolic interactionism as my springboard, and through interviews with nine former White Power activists, the study shows that leaving a White Power organization is divided into a differentiation between why and how activists leave. While disillusionment, guilt and fear tend to be reasons why activists eventually want to leave it is through their interaction with people in the outside community, for instance their children or a police officer, they manage to leave. Meeting with people with immigrant backgrounds was also crucial for the process of leaving the White Power movement, for seven of the respondents such meetings contributed to their deradicalization processes.

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