9781422287651

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ENVY AND JEALOUSY

Many cultures believe in the “evil eye”—the power to hurt someone simply by looking at them with envy and anger. The belief is found in nearly every continent, from Africa to Asia, Europe to North and South America.

and the people who are doing the envying. A 2008 Gallup poll asked people whether they were “angry that others have more than they deserve.” People who strongly disagreed with that state- ment—who were not envious, in other words—were almost five times more likely to say they were “very happy” about their lives than people who strongly agreed with the statement. The world’s religions all teach something quite similar. Envy, they each say in different ways, makes us lose our sense of our real place in the world. It makes us miserable!