Who needed flat-screen TVs, iPhones and McMansions to get the envy ball off and rolling?

Even back in the day, Caveman Joe couldn’t help but drool over his hole-in-the-rock neighbor’s new hunting spear and wish he had one just as sharp and sporty.

And Cavegal Jane may have loved her own rock jewelry, but she also turned a tad green over the latest fad in mastodon-tooth bracelets.

Envy is an everlasting state of mind that’s plagued our psyches since the dawn of time.

Modern researchers have even pinpointed a new incarnation of this age-old lust for things out of reach: Facebook envy. One study just released by German researchers in February found that envy often rears its head as we scroll through others’ posts about exotic vacations, new houses and job promotions.

On this St. Patrick’s Day — as we’re reveling in all things green — we turned to the experts for their insights on why envy may turn US into something green, and how we might better cope with this state of mind.

Going green

Envy is generally defined as desire for something we don’t have that someone else does, be it a flashy sports car, a backyard pool or a trendy handbag. It isn’t a highly regarded attribute in most cultures and has historically been ranked as one of the seven deadly sins, keeping company with other such undesirables as wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust and gluttony.

The phrase “green with envy” may have originated with the ancient Greeks, who believed being envious created an overproduction of bile that gave a greenish hue to one’s complexion. Over time, various writers, including Shakespeare, spoke of envy and jealousy as the “green sickness” or “green-eyed monster.”

Chances are, we’ve all experienced envy in our lives to one degree or another.

“By our nature, as humans, there are things we desire and want in our lives,” says psychologist Todd Soutor at Davis Behavioral Health in Layton. “A desire to want something, a desire to have something, I don’t believe there is anything wrong with that.”

It’s when envy slips to the dark side that it can stir up trouble.

‘You’re not so hot’

Envy is often only a temporary state of mind, says Lark Woodbury, a psychology teacher at Layton High School.

When she spies “adorable” 5-inch stilettos that she’d love to wear herself, but can’t because of artificial joints in her feet, Woodbury says she may experience a fleeting twinge of envy. But, “that’s about as long as it lasts.”

If, however, envy becomes so pervasive that it interferes in your life and prevents you from being productive, it’s a more serious problem, the psychology teacher says.

Soutor agrees, saying, that there’s a difference between wishing you had a new car and thinking, “If I had this kind of car, then I think I’d be happy.”

“You become so consumed with that goal, you sacrifice other important things,” such as personal relationships with others, the psychologist says.

And sadly, once folks get the coveted car, they often discover that doesn’t really make them happy, so they pine after another bigger-ticket item, Soutor adds.

The extreme edge of envy is not only wishing that you had what another person has, but also harboring ill feelings about the person or wishing something bad would happen to him, says John C. Christensen, a Brigham City psychologist. It’s a condition called “schadenfreude,” which means deriving pleasure from the misfortunes of others.

When we’re envious, we typically see others as being superior to us, Christensen says, so, “It gives me pleasure to see you taken down, brought down to my level.”

The psychologist says he witnessed this recently in his own community. As he hears residents talk about prominent persons “laid low” by situations in their lives, Christensen says he’s noticed they sometimes have almost a sense of pleasure in discussing the misfortunes of others.

It even happened to him back when Bill Clinton was elected president, Christensen says. The psychologist remembers comparing his own life to Clinton’s and thinking enviously, “We’re the same age and he’s the president of the United States — and look at what’s he’s done with his life.”

Later, when Clinton’s affair with an intern led to a fall from grace, Christensen says he recognized a bit of schadenfreude in himself.

World of perfection

Jealousy and envy are often used interchangeably, but Christensen says they are not the same.

While envy involves a longing for things we don’t have, jealousy is a fear of losing something that we do have, such as a relationship with a friend, lover or spouse.

Our society is full of triggers that may promote envy, such as the idealized lifestyles featured in movies and television shows, Christensen says, where people are unusually attractive, live in gorgeous homes and drive nice cars.

Facebook envy is a huge issue in counseling, says marriage and family therapist JanaLynn Young of Layton, whether it’s a partner connecting with old boyfriends or girlfriends on the social media site, or an individual comparing others’ seemingly “perfect” lives to her own problem-laced life.

“You don’t see any dirt” on Facebook, Young says — all we post are the great things and not, for instance, our “fat” pictures.

Young says envy-related problems come up frequently in counseling, although clients themselves will rarely identify that as the issue. A wife may be envious that her husband controls all of the money in the relationship, for example, and that envy manifests itself in a variety of actions, Young says.

Christensen, too, agrees folks often don’t realize what they are experiencing is envy. But when they say, “My life’s going bad and everybody else’s isn’t,” the psychologist explains, that is an envy problem.

Our tendency to compare ourselves with everyone else is partly in-born, Christensen says. Our limbic brain — the “animal” part of our brain — is constantly on alert to anything that threatens us, from physical dangers to things that simply make us look bad or less desirable.

If, for example, we hear someone with a superior singing voice, our limbic brain is automatically thinking, “I don’t sing — I wish I could sing like that.”

Christensen says we react by saying something like, “She was a little flat.”

“We try to bring their superior ability down to a level that matches our own; we’re trying to protect ourself and save ourself,” he explains.

Or we may even go so far as to attack the singer herself, not just her voice, with comments like, “She isn’t real pretty,” or “She’s kind of chubby.”