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Recently a friend I've known (and been competitive with for years) moved to a more affluent town, with a much better high school than the one my son goes to.  Another friend got a snazzy new convertible. My work contract ended at about the same time.  There's no new one on the horizon.  And I admit it.  I was jealous. Now scientists are finding that jealousy can lead to, yes, you heard it here first.  Spite.     Studying monkeys, they've found that their reaction to those who have more is exactly that.  Monkeys, like humans, will take the time and effort to punish others who get more than their fair share, according to a study conducted at Yale. In fact, they can act downright spiteful. Capuchin monkeys will yank on a rope to collapse a table that is holding a partner monkey’s food. While chimpanzees collapse their partner’s table only after direct personal affronts like theft, capuchins punish more often, even in cases whe...

Spite .  Sometimes it's delicious, like when your neighbor yells at you for your son accidentally kicking his soccer ball onto her lawn.  And then you see a dog owner stop in her yard and -- well, you get the picture. Now researchers are finding that spite is good, and that it may actually help us engage in a cooperative spirit and fair play.   According to Natalie Angier, " The new research on spite transcends older notions that we are savage, selfish brutes at heart, as well as more recent suggestions that humans are inherently affiliative creatures yearning to love and connect. Instead, it concludes that vice and virtue, like the two sides of a V, may be inextricably linked." Studies found that  men were generally more spiteful than women and young adults more spiteful than older ones, and that spitefulness generally co-existed side by side with traits like callousness, Machiavellianism and poor self-esteem — but not with agreeableness, conscientiousness or ...