That's an interesting twist. Its true though, its easy to act nice and benevolent when you feel superior and can feel like you're doing them a favor. It's a different matter to treat someone well when they make you realize your inferiority in some way. Like a lot of people would probably find it easier to comfort a friend on hard times than to celebrate from the heart the achievements of a friend who is more successful/talented than themselves. It's a problem of pride/ego, just not the initially blatantly obvious variety.