{
  "id": 3723454,
  "title": "Does envy influences the way we vote?",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/27/does-envy-influences-the-way-we-vote",
  "topic": "science",
  "section": "Science",
  "published": "2026-08-27T11:23:26.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Phys.org",
    "slug": "phys-org",
    "url": "https://phys.org/news/2026-08-envy-vote.html"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "New research from Linköping University in Sweden shows that envy plays a greater role in collective decision-making through majority voting compared to individual choices. This is because people's sense of personal responsibility decreases when their individual vote is unlikely to determine the outcome. In experiments with 574 Swedish students and 1,176 English-speaking participants, those who voted collectively were more likely to choose equal splits of resources, even though it meant reducing the amount another person received. This envy-driven behavior was not observed in individual decision-making scenarios. The researchers suggest that shared responsibility in collective decisions makes it easier for destructive emotions like envy to influence people's choices.",
  "summary": "Envy plays a greater role when resources are allocated through majority voting than when we make decisions individually. This is shown by new research from Linköping University, Sweden. According to the researchers, the explanation may be that our sense of personal responsibility diminishes when an individual vote is unlikely to determine the outcome.",
  "key_points": [
    "Envy influences collective decision-making more than individual choices",
    "People feel less personal responsibility in group voting scenarios",
    "Envy-driven behavior observed in collective voting, not individual decisions"
  ],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}