Jacob Lange
Biographic Data
| ID | 414599 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Jacob Lange |
| GIVEN NAMES | Jacob |
| FAMILY NAME | Lange |
| SIGNATURE | LANGE J |
| AFFILIATIONS | Universität Hamburg |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-5375-3247 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 27 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 50 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 27 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2014 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Emotional Dynamics of Social Comparisons: Nonlinear Relationships Between Comparison Extremity and Social Emotions, and Their Motivational Functioning
In an experience-sampling study, we examined how emotions stemming from social comparisons influence daily motivation. Analyzing 2,976 daily real-world social comparisons, we examined the interplay of comparison direction (upward vs. downward) and extremity (from moderate to extreme), two pleasant emotions (schadenfreude and happy-for-ness), two unpleasant emotions (benign envy, malicious envy), three motivational tendencies (pushing, coasting, a…
Influence of friendship on benign and malicious envy among secondary school students
BACKGROUND: Benign and malicious envy arise from social comparisons regarding a quality, achievement or possession. As school is inherently evaluative and social, the classroom offers a relevant and understudied context to investigate envy and the impact of friendship on envy. Prior research has shown a positive association between relationship closeness and benign envy. AIMS: Broadening research on the interconnectedness of emotional and social …
Promoting theoretical precision in emotion science
By incentivizing precise theoretical contributions, emotion science can move toward theory convergence and more robust explanatory frameworks. Increasing theoretical precision will ultimately strengthen emotion science, enabling it to generate more testable, integrative, and practically valuable accounts of emotional life
Emotional cues to group hierarchy: Inferences about dominance- versus prestige-based hierarchies from members' emotional expressions
Maintain the relationship or protect it from threat? Jealousy shapes distinct types of goal striving in romantic relationships
We investigated the reciprocal relationships between jealousy and maintenance versus protection goal striving in romantic relationships. While existing research has examined various ways romantic partners respond to jealousy and invest in their relationships, it lacks a distinction between routine acts of regular care for the current state of the relationship (maintenance goal striving) and acts that protect against anticipated negative outcomes …
Attitude Formation Based on Political Views: An Expectancy-Value Model of Interpersonal Likability in Politics
How affective polarization in Western democracies results from the interplay of ideological differences and group identification remains unclear. To better understand these processes and address the call for falsifiable theories, we propose a formalized Expectancy-Value Model of Interpersonal Likability in Politics (EVIL-P). It argues that people (dis)like targets with (dis)similar political views (i.e., value), especially if these views are rare…
Navigating uncertainty in regulatory decision-making for novel entities: The case of trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) and its precursors
Regulatory decision-making for novel entities such as trifluoroacetic acid, respectively trifluoroacetate (TFA), involves multiple forms of uncertainty. This paper applies a typology that structures uncertainty along two dimensions: types of uncertainty (epistemological, ontological, and ambiguity) and objects of uncertainty (substantive, strategic, and institutional). We argue that three key substantive features of TFA, its large number of precu…
The Social Psychology of Corruption
The special issue focuses on the social–psychological mechanisms behind corruption, emphasizing the role of social norms, power dynamics, cultural perspectives and gender in shaping corrupt behaviours. The special issue highlights the importance of understanding how shared expectations, cultural influences and organizational structures sustain or mitigate unethical conduct. By integrating interdisciplinary approaches, the collection presents new …
An Interdisciplinary Perspective on the Value of Envy
The public and scholars alike largely consider envy to be reprehensible. This judgment of the value of envy commonly results either from a limited understanding of the nature of envy or from a limited understanding of how to determine the value of phenomena. Overcoming this state requires an interdisciplinary collaboration of psychologists and philosophers. That is, broad empirical evidence regarding the nature of envy generated in psychological …
The interplay of social rank perceptions of Trump and Biden and emotions following the U.S. presidential election 2020
123) samples, we investigated how observers' group membership (i.e. political orientation) and the social rank attainment of both candidates (i.e. dominance vs. prestige) predicted emotional reactions. Trump was generally perceived as more dominant, and Biden as more prestigious. However, perceptions of social rank attainment differed depending on the observers' political orientation, either matching or not matching with the leaders (i.e. Republi…
Quality, Replicability, and Transparency in Research in Social Psychology: Implementation of Recommendations in Germany
In 2020, the Division of Social Psychology of the German Psychological Society (DGPs) published 11 methodological recommendations for improving the quality, replicability, and transparency of social psychological research. We evaluate these recommendations in a quantitative and qualitative survey conducted with members of the division ( N = 54). Most – but not all – recommendations are well-known and understood by these members of the division. F…
Comparing implications of distinct emotion, network, and dimensional approaches for co-occurring emotions
Many situations elicit multiple emotions at the same time. Therefore, emotion theories should explain when and how emotions co-occur. We compared four parsimonious, formal theories that could explain emotion co-occurrence inspired by distinct emotion, network, and dimensional approaches to emotions. In three studies ( N = 1,038), diverse participants rated the intensity of awe and kama muta (Study 1; US community sample; conducted in 2020), shame…
Belief in Free Will Is Related to Internal Attribution in Self-Perception
Past research indicates that individuals’ belief in free will is related to attributing others’ behavior to internal causes. An open question is whether belief in free will is related to the attribution of one’s own action. To answer this question, we tested two opposing predictions against each other by assessing the relation of belief in free will with the self-serving bias—individuals’ tendency to attribute personal success more strongly to in…
You’re just envious”: Inferring benign and malicious envy from facial expressions and contextual information
Envy shapes social hierarchies. To protect their rank, envied persons react to the threat posed by enviers. Doing so requires that envied persons initially perceive who envies them. However, a common perspective is that envy lacks a unique expression and that enviers disguise their experience, preventing the social perception of envy. In contrast to this perspective, recent evidence indicates that observers perceive benign and malicious forms of …
Cross-cultural and inter-group research on emotion perception
Emotions as Overlapping Causal Networks of Emotion Components: Implications and Methodological Approaches
A widespread perspective describes emotions as distinct categories bridged by fuzzy boundaries, indicating that emotions are distinct and dimensional at the same time. Theoretical and methodological approaches to this perspective still need further development. We conceptualize emotions as overlapping networks of causal relationships between emotion components—networks representing distinct emotions share components with and relate to each other.…
Toward an Integrative Psychometric Model of Emotions
Emotions are part and parcel of the human condition, but their nature is debated. Three broad classes of theories about the nature of emotions can be distinguished: affect-program theories, constructionist theories, and appraisal theories. Integrating these broad classes of theories into a unifying theory is challenging. An integrative psychometric model of emotions can inform such a theory because psychometric models are intertwined with theoret…
Surprise me! On the impact of unexpected benefits on other-praising gratitude expressions
Gratitude reinforces social bonds. This relationship-regulating function depends on whether and how it is expressed. People can express gratitude in different ways: Beneficiaries may emphasise how they profited from a benefit (self-benefiting) or focus on the benefactor's actions and characteristics related to it (other-praising). What underlies these expressive styles remains unclear. Based on findings that other-praising gratitude expressions h…
Accuracy and bias in the social perception of envy
Research converges on the notion that when people feel envy, they disguise it toward others. This implies that a person's envy in a given situation cannot be accurately perceived by peers, as envy lacks a specific display that could be used as a perceptual cue. In contrast to this reasoning, research supports that envy contributes to the regulation of status hierarchies. If envy threatens status positions, people should be highly attentive to ide…
Schadenfreude as social-functional dominance regulator
Schadenfreude follows from misfortunes happening to other individuals. It is therefore an essentially social emotion. However, previous research has mainly explored its intrapersonal functions. Complementing these findings, we propose a social-functional approach to schadenfreude. Seven studies (total N = 2,362) support that (a) schadenfreude is a reaction to a misfortune befalling an initially dominance-displaying individual and (b) the public e…
Suspicious binds: Conspiracy thinking and tenuous perceptions of causal connections between co‐occurring and spuriously correlated events
Previous research indicates that conspiracy thinking is informed by the psychological imposition of order and meaning on the environment, including the perception of causal relations between random events. Four studies indicate that conspiracy belief is driven by readiness to draw implausible causal connections even when events are not random, but instead conform to an objective pattern. Study 1 ( N = 195) showed that conspiracy belief was relate…
The painful duality of envy: Evidence for an integrative theory and a meta-analysis on the relation of envy and schadenfreude
Despite envy's importance as a driver of social behavior, scholars disagree on its conceptualization. We review the literature and distinguish three incongruent theories: (a) Malicious Envy Theory (i.e., envy as uniform and malicious), (b) Dual Envy Theory (i.e., envy as taking on 2 forms, benign and malicious), and (c) Pain Theory of Envy (i.e., envy as uniform and driven by pain). Moreover, within and across theories, operationalizations of env…
The Evil Queen's Dilemma: Linking Narcissistic Admiration and Rivalry to Benign and Malicious Envy
It is widely assumed that narcissists are envious. Nevertheless, evidence supporting this claim has remained elusive. In five studies (N = 1,225), we disentangle how grandiose narcissism predicts divergent envious inclinations. Specific facets of narcissism and forms of envy shared the same underlying motivational orientations (Study 1) and distinctively related to each other (Studies 1 to 5) via differences in emotional appraisal (Study 4). More…
Dispositional Envy Revisited: Unraveling the Motivational Dynamics of Benign and Malicious Envy
Previous research has conceptualized dispositional envy as a unitary construct. Recently however, episodic envy has been shown to emerge in two qualitatively different forms. Benign envy is related to the motivation to move upward, whereas malicious envy is related to pulling superior others down. In four studies ( N = 1,094)—using the newly developed Benign and Malicious Envy Scale (BeMaS)—we show that dispositional envy is also characterized by…
The tango of two deadly sins: The social-functional relation of envy and pride
Envy stems from a social comparison with a superior standard. Its 2 distinct forms are directed at changing this situation in different ways, either by becoming as successful as the envied person (in benign envy) or by lowering the envied person's advantage (in malicious envy). In essence, envy is thus a social phenomenon. Nevertheless, most previous research has focused on its underlying intrapersonal processes, overlooking envy's interpersonal …
What catches the envious eye? Attentional biases within malicious and benign envy
Suspicious binds: Conspiracy thinking and tenuous perceptions of causal connections between co‐occurring and spuriously correlated events
Previous research indicates that conspiracy thinking is informed by the psychological imposition of order and meaning on the environment, including the perception of causal relations between random events. Four studies indicate that conspiracy belief is driven by readiness to draw implausible causal connections even when events are not random, but instead conform to an objective pattern. Study 1 ( N = 195) showed that conspiracy belief was relate…
The painful duality of envy: Evidence for an integrative theory and a meta-analysis on the relation of envy and schadenfreude
Despite envy's importance as a driver of social behavior, scholars disagree on its conceptualization. We review the literature and distinguish three incongruent theories: (a) Malicious Envy Theory (i.e., envy as uniform and malicious), (b) Dual Envy Theory (i.e., envy as taking on 2 forms, benign and malicious), and (c) Pain Theory of Envy (i.e., envy as uniform and driven by pain). Moreover, within and across theories, operationalizations of env…
The tango of two deadly sins: The social-functional relation of envy and pride
Envy stems from a social comparison with a superior standard. Its 2 distinct forms are directed at changing this situation in different ways, either by becoming as successful as the envied person (in benign envy) or by lowering the envied person's advantage (in malicious envy). In essence, envy is thus a social phenomenon. Nevertheless, most previous research has focused on its underlying intrapersonal processes, overlooking envy's interpersonal …
Cross-cultural and inter-group research on emotion perception
The effects of information form and domain-specific knowledge on choice deferral
What catches the envious eye? Attentional biases within malicious and benign envy
Dispositional Envy Revisited: Unraveling the Motivational Dynamics of Benign and Malicious Envy
Previous research has conceptualized dispositional envy as a unitary construct. Recently however, episodic envy has been shown to emerge in two qualitatively different forms. Benign envy is related to the motivation to move upward, whereas malicious envy is related to pulling superior others down. In four studies ( N = 1,094)—using the newly developed Benign and Malicious Envy Scale (BeMaS)—we show that dispositional envy is also characterized by…
The tango of two deadly sins: The social-functional relation of envy and pride
Envy stems from a social comparison with a superior standard. Its 2 distinct forms are directed at changing this situation in different ways, either by becoming as successful as the envied person (in benign envy) or by lowering the envied person's advantage (in malicious envy). In essence, envy is thus a social phenomenon. Nevertheless, most previous research has focused on its underlying intrapersonal processes, overlooking envy's interpersonal …
The Evil Queen's Dilemma: Linking Narcissistic Admiration and Rivalry to Benign and Malicious Envy
It is widely assumed that narcissists are envious. Nevertheless, evidence supporting this claim has remained elusive. In five studies (N = 1,225), we disentangle how grandiose narcissism predicts divergent envious inclinations. Specific facets of narcissism and forms of envy shared the same underlying motivational orientations (Study 1) and distinctively related to each other (Studies 1 to 5) via differences in emotional appraisal (Study 4). More…
Schadenfreude as social-functional dominance regulator
Schadenfreude follows from misfortunes happening to other individuals. It is therefore an essentially social emotion. However, previous research has mainly explored its intrapersonal functions. Complementing these findings, we propose a social-functional approach to schadenfreude. Seven studies (total N = 2,362) support that (a) schadenfreude is a reaction to a misfortune befalling an initially dominance-displaying individual and (b) the public e…
Suspicious binds: Conspiracy thinking and tenuous perceptions of causal connections between co‐occurring and spuriously correlated events
Previous research indicates that conspiracy thinking is informed by the psychological imposition of order and meaning on the environment, including the perception of causal relations between random events. Four studies indicate that conspiracy belief is driven by readiness to draw implausible causal connections even when events are not random, but instead conform to an objective pattern. Study 1 ( N = 195) showed that conspiracy belief was relate…
The painful duality of envy: Evidence for an integrative theory and a meta-analysis on the relation of envy and schadenfreude
Despite envy's importance as a driver of social behavior, scholars disagree on its conceptualization. We review the literature and distinguish three incongruent theories: (a) Malicious Envy Theory (i.e., envy as uniform and malicious), (b) Dual Envy Theory (i.e., envy as taking on 2 forms, benign and malicious), and (c) Pain Theory of Envy (i.e., envy as uniform and driven by pain). Moreover, within and across theories, operationalizations of env…
Accuracy and bias in the social perception of envy
Research converges on the notion that when people feel envy, they disguise it toward others. This implies that a person's envy in a given situation cannot be accurately perceived by peers, as envy lacks a specific display that could be used as a perceptual cue. In contrast to this reasoning, research supports that envy contributes to the regulation of status hierarchies. If envy threatens status positions, people should be highly attentive to ide…
Toward an Integrative Psychometric Model of Emotions
Emotions are part and parcel of the human condition, but their nature is debated. Three broad classes of theories about the nature of emotions can be distinguished: affect-program theories, constructionist theories, and appraisal theories. Integrating these broad classes of theories into a unifying theory is challenging. An integrative psychometric model of emotions can inform such a theory because psychometric models are intertwined with theoret…
Surprise me! On the impact of unexpected benefits on other-praising gratitude expressions
Gratitude reinforces social bonds. This relationship-regulating function depends on whether and how it is expressed. People can express gratitude in different ways: Beneficiaries may emphasise how they profited from a benefit (self-benefiting) or focus on the benefactor's actions and characteristics related to it (other-praising). What underlies these expressive styles remains unclear. Based on findings that other-praising gratitude expressions h…
Emotions as Overlapping Causal Networks of Emotion Components: Implications and Methodological Approaches
A widespread perspective describes emotions as distinct categories bridged by fuzzy boundaries, indicating that emotions are distinct and dimensional at the same time. Theoretical and methodological approaches to this perspective still need further development. We conceptualize emotions as overlapping networks of causal relationships between emotion components—networks representing distinct emotions share components with and relate to each other.…
Belief in Free Will Is Related to Internal Attribution in Self-Perception
Past research indicates that individuals’ belief in free will is related to attributing others’ behavior to internal causes. An open question is whether belief in free will is related to the attribution of one’s own action. To answer this question, we tested two opposing predictions against each other by assessing the relation of belief in free will with the self-serving bias—individuals’ tendency to attribute personal success more strongly to in…
You’re just envious”: Inferring benign and malicious envy from facial expressions and contextual information
Envy shapes social hierarchies. To protect their rank, envied persons react to the threat posed by enviers. Doing so requires that envied persons initially perceive who envies them. However, a common perspective is that envy lacks a unique expression and that enviers disguise their experience, preventing the social perception of envy. In contrast to this perspective, recent evidence indicates that observers perceive benign and malicious forms of …
Cross-cultural and inter-group research on emotion perception
Comparing implications of distinct emotion, network, and dimensional approaches for co-occurring emotions
Many situations elicit multiple emotions at the same time. Therefore, emotion theories should explain when and how emotions co-occur. We compared four parsimonious, formal theories that could explain emotion co-occurrence inspired by distinct emotion, network, and dimensional approaches to emotions. In three studies ( N = 1,038), diverse participants rated the intensity of awe and kama muta (Study 1; US community sample; conducted in 2020), shame…
An Interdisciplinary Perspective on the Value of Envy
The public and scholars alike largely consider envy to be reprehensible. This judgment of the value of envy commonly results either from a limited understanding of the nature of envy or from a limited understanding of how to determine the value of phenomena. Overcoming this state requires an interdisciplinary collaboration of psychologists and philosophers. That is, broad empirical evidence regarding the nature of envy generated in psychological …
The interplay of social rank perceptions of Trump and Biden and emotions following the U.S. presidential election 2020
123) samples, we investigated how observers' group membership (i.e. political orientation) and the social rank attainment of both candidates (i.e. dominance vs. prestige) predicted emotional reactions. Trump was generally perceived as more dominant, and Biden as more prestigious. However, perceptions of social rank attainment differed depending on the observers' political orientation, either matching or not matching with the leaders (i.e. Republi…
Quality, Replicability, and Transparency in Research in Social Psychology: Implementation of Recommendations in Germany
In 2020, the Division of Social Psychology of the German Psychological Society (DGPs) published 11 methodological recommendations for improving the quality, replicability, and transparency of social psychological research. We evaluate these recommendations in a quantitative and qualitative survey conducted with members of the division ( N = 54). Most – but not all – recommendations are well-known and understood by these members of the division. F…
Attitude Formation Based on Political Views: An Expectancy-Value Model of Interpersonal Likability in Politics
How affective polarization in Western democracies results from the interplay of ideological differences and group identification remains unclear. To better understand these processes and address the call for falsifiable theories, we propose a formalized Expectancy-Value Model of Interpersonal Likability in Politics (EVIL-P). It argues that people (dis)like targets with (dis)similar political views (i.e., value), especially if these views are rare…
Navigating uncertainty in regulatory decision-making for novel entities: The case of trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) and its precursors
Regulatory decision-making for novel entities such as trifluoroacetic acid, respectively trifluoroacetate (TFA), involves multiple forms of uncertainty. This paper applies a typology that structures uncertainty along two dimensions: types of uncertainty (epistemological, ontological, and ambiguity) and objects of uncertainty (substantive, strategic, and institutional). We argue that three key substantive features of TFA, its large number of precu…
The Social Psychology of Corruption
The special issue focuses on the social–psychological mechanisms behind corruption, emphasizing the role of social norms, power dynamics, cultural perspectives and gender in shaping corrupt behaviours. The special issue highlights the importance of understanding how shared expectations, cultural influences and organizational structures sustain or mitigate unethical conduct. By integrating interdisciplinary approaches, the collection presents new …
Emotional Dynamics of Social Comparisons: Nonlinear Relationships Between Comparison Extremity and Social Emotions, and Their Motivational Functioning
In an experience-sampling study, we examined how emotions stemming from social comparisons influence daily motivation. Analyzing 2,976 daily real-world social comparisons, we examined the interplay of comparison direction (upward vs. downward) and extremity (from moderate to extreme), two pleasant emotions (schadenfreude and happy-for-ness), two unpleasant emotions (benign envy, malicious envy), three motivational tendencies (pushing, coasting, a…
Influence of friendship on benign and malicious envy among secondary school students
BACKGROUND: Benign and malicious envy arise from social comparisons regarding a quality, achievement or possession. As school is inherently evaluative and social, the classroom offers a relevant and understudied context to investigate envy and the impact of friendship on envy. Prior research has shown a positive association between relationship closeness and benign envy. AIMS: Broadening research on the interconnectedness of emotional and social …
Promoting theoretical precision in emotion science
By incentivizing precise theoretical contributions, emotion science can move toward theory convergence and more robust explanatory frameworks. Increasing theoretical precision will ultimately strengthen emotion science, enabling it to generate more testable, integrative, and practically valuable accounts of emotional life
Psychology (21 works) · Social Psychology (20 works) · Emotions and Moral Behavior (13 works) · Cognitive psychology (10 works) · Personality Traits and Psychology (8 works) · Perception (6 works) · Social Psychology (6 works) · Computer Science (5 works) · Jealousy (5 works) · Mental Health Research Topics (5 works)