Older women have often been portrayed¹ as green-eyed monsters, envying the young and hankering after their own lost looks.

年纪大的女人通常都被描述成爱嫉妒的人，她们嫉妒年轻女子，渴望拥有自己曾经的姣好容貌。

But it is actually the young who are the most jealous of each other, envious² of their friends' appearances, relationships, and social success, a new study has revealed.

事实上，新研究揭示，年轻人最爱嫉妒彼此，他们会嫉妒朋友的容颜、爱情和社交的成功。

It also appears that both men and women are more likely to envy someone who is approximately their own age and of the same gender³.

还有一种现象，不管男人还是女人都更倾向于嫉妒那些跟他们年纪相当以及同性别的人。

The research was carried out by psychology⁴ professor Christine Harris and graduate student Nicole Henniger from the University of California, San Diego and is published in the journal Basic and Applied⁵ Social Psychology.

这项研究由圣地亚哥加利福尼亚大学的心理学教授克莉丝汀•哈里斯以及研究生妮可•亨尼希共同实施执行，并发表在《基础研究和应用社会心理学》这份期刊上。

The paper covers two studies: one that surveyed more than 900 people aged 18 to 80 on their own experiences of being envious, and another that asked 800 more in the same age range to remember when they had been the targets of envy.

这篇论文包含了两个研究：一个是调查九百多名18岁至80岁的人关于自身嫉妒的经历，另外一个研究是访问另外八百名同龄的人，让他们回忆自己什么时候成为被嫉妒的对象。

Envy was a common experience. More than three quarters of the participants reported experiencing envy in the last year, with slightly more women (79.4 percent) than men (74.1 percent).

嫉妒是一种常见的经历。据研究报告，超过四分之三的调查参与者在最近的一年里嫉妒过别人，而其中女性产生嫉妒的比例为79.4%，超过男性产生嫉妒的比例，后者为74.1%。

But they found that the experience declined with age.

但是他们发现这种经历会随着年龄的增长而下降。

Around 80 percent of people younger than 30 reported feeling envious in the last year. However, for those aged 50 and over, that figure went down to 69 percent.

据研究报告，在过去的一年里，年纪低于30岁的人群中有80%左右经历了嫉妒，然而，对于年纪超过50岁的人来说，这个比例降到了69%。

Overwhelmingly, people envied others of their own gender.

人们绝大多数是对同性的嫉妒。

'It surprised us how consistently men envied other men and women, women,' continued Professor Harris.

“男性嫉妒其他男性，而女性则嫉妒其他女性，这种高度的一致性让我们惊讶。”哈里斯教授说道。

'Even in domains⁶ like financial and occupational success, where you can imagine that a woman might envy a man his better pay or status, that wasn't usually the case.'

“即使是在诸如金融和职业成功的领域里，你想象到的是一个女性可能会嫉妒一个男性有更高的薪资和更高的地位，但通常情况并不是这样。”

Also, people most often direct their envy at similarly aged others - within about five years of their own age.

同样，人们最经常将嫉妒的矛头指向年龄相近的人——与他们的年龄相差在5岁之内的人。

The researchers found that what people envied also changed with age.

研究发现人们所嫉妒的事物也随着他们的年纪的变化而改变。

Young people said they felt most envious over looks and romance as well as achievement at school and social success, with 40 percent of participants under 30 said they envied others for their success in romance.

年轻人说他们最嫉妒的是外貌、恋爱史以及在学校和社会上取得的成功，其中30岁以下的参与者中有40%的人说他们嫉妒他人恋爱的成功。

But fewer than 15 percent of those over 50 said the same.

但是在超过50岁的受访者中只有不到15%的人说他们嫉妒的是这类事物。

'Envy of monetary⁷ success and occupational success was common across all age groups,' the coauthors write, 'but these two domains were unique in being more often envied by older people.'

“对于金钱成功和职业成功的嫉妒是各个年龄群体中都很常见的，”笔者写道，“但是这两个方面独特之处在于，年长的人更容易因此嫉妒。”

Elsewhere, the research found that people are more likely to be jealous of their friends than their family - perhaps because the success of these people is more cause for happiness and pride than envy.

研究还发现相比于家人，人们更容易嫉妒朋友，或许是因为家人的成功带来的更多是开心与骄傲，而非嫉妒。

The researchers could not determine whether the differences observed with age are due to changes over the lifespan or differences among generations.

研究者不知道这些在不同年龄人群观察到的差异是由于年岁增长带来的改变还是年代的不同。

'My hunch⁸, though,' Professor Harris said, 'is that the hold envy has on people diminishes with time. My guess is that it's good news about aging.'

“但是我的预感是人们所持有的嫉妒感会随着时间的流逝而减少，” 哈里斯教授说，“我想这倒是一个关于变老的好消息。”