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Mind

Struggling with envy? Here are some science-backed ways to help

A reader dealing with jealousy of a friend is given a host of scientifically sourced ways to help from our advice columnist David Robson

By David Robson

26 February 2025

E06NGF An upper class Bolivian girl sits in her very fancy toy remote controlled car that is admired by a poorer boy in Sucre, Bolivia.

“I just can’t help feeling bitter about what they’ve achieved”

David Litschel/Alamy

It is all too human to feel a little jealous of others’ success, but what can we do when those feelings threaten to overcome us? One reader this month describes some serious resentment at a friend’s promotion: “I just can’t help feeling bitter about what they’ve achieved.”

The obvious solution to envy would be to avoid comparing ourselves to the people around us, but that is easier said than done. Humans are social creatures who evolved in hierarchies, and our standing within a group would have…

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