Sex Differences in Jealousy in Response to Actual Infidelity

Summary & key facts

Two studies asked people about real cases of a partner’s infidelity. In both studies, men felt more jealous about the sexual side of the cheating, while women felt more jealous about the emotional side. The sex differences were statistically significant and showed up whether researchers used continuous measures or the usual forced-choice question. One study used a paper survey of students and the other used a web survey of non-students.

Key facts:

• The authors ran two separate studies: one was a paper-and-pencil survey with a student sample and the other was a web-based survey targeting a non-student sample.
• When people reported on actual infidelity, men experienced more jealousy about the sexual aspects of the partner’s cheating.
• When people reported on actual infidelity, women experienced more jealousy about the emotional aspects of the partner’s cheating.
• The sex differences were statistically significant and appeared using both continuous measures of jealousy and the traditional forced-choice measure.
• The results address criticisms that sex differences in jealousy appear only for hypothetical scenarios or only with forced-choice questions by showing the differences in real infidelity reports and across measurement types.

Abstract

The present studies address two criticisms of the theory of evolved sex differences in jealousy: (a) that the sex difference in jealousy emerges only in response to hypothetical infidelity scenarios, and (b) that the sex difference emerges only using forced-choice measures. In two separate studies, one a paper-and-pencil survey with a student sample and the other a web-based survey targeting a non-student sample, men and women showed significant sex differences in jealousy in response to actual infidelity experiences; men experienced more jealousy in response to the sexual aspects of an actual infidelity, whereas women experienced more jealousy in response to the emotional aspects of the infidelity. Sex differences emerged using both continuous measures of jealousy as well as the traditional forced-choice measure. Overall, our results demonstrate that sex differences in jealousy are not limited to responses to hypothetical infidelity scenarios; they also emerge in response to actual infidelity experiences.

Topics

Consumer Behavior in Brand Consumption and Identification Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior Sexuality, Behavior, and Technology

Categories

Experimental and Cognitive Psychology Psychology Social Sciences

Tags

Developmental psychology Jealousy Mathematics Psychology Significant difference Social psychology Statistics