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Sex Differences in Jealousy: Evolution, Physiology, and Psychology
Abstract
In species with internal female fertilization, males risk both lowered paternity probability and investment in rival gametes if their mates have sexual contact with other males. Females of such species do not risk lowered maternity probability through partner infidelity, but they do risk the diversion of their mates' commitment and resources to rival females. Three studies tested the hypothesis that sex differences in jealousy emerged in humans as solutions to the respective adaptive problems faced by each sex. In Study 1, men and women selected which event would upset them more—a partner's sexual infidelity or emotional infidelity. Study 2 recorded physiological responses (heart rate, electrodermal response, corrugator supercilii contraction) while subjects imagined separately the two types of partner infidelity. Study 3 tested the effect of being in a committed sexual relationship on the activation of jealousy. All studies showed large sex differences, confirming hypothesized sex linkages in jealousy activation.
... From an evolutionary perspective, sexual jealousy is understood as an emotion that motivates the protection of a valued relationship from rivals (Buunk, 1997;Symons, 1979;White, 1984). In the context of romantic relationships, jealousy appears as an emotion designed to protect the romantic pair-bond (Fernandez, 2017;Fletcher et al., 2015) preventing the diversion of reproductively relevant resources toward interlopers (Buss et al., 1992). Jealousy is a complex emotion (Buunk, 1997), which involves multiple affective reactions such as anger, sadness, and fear, and it is also very similar to the flight stress response (Buss, 2013;Fernandez & Palestini, 2010;Shackelford et al., 2000). ...
... Jealousy is a complex emotion (Buunk, 1997), which involves multiple affective reactions such as anger, sadness, and fear, and it is also very similar to the flight stress response (Buss, 2013;Fernandez & Palestini, 2010;Shackelford et al., 2000). Importantly, both sexes appear to have evolved a particular psychology of jealousy, sensible to the situations or cues that activate its behavioral expression (Buss, 2018;Buss et al., 1992;Sagarin et al., 2012). ...
... Reacting with jealousy when there is a suspicion of losing a partner is less costly than actually losing a valued reproductive partner or their resources (Buss & Haselton, 2005;Foster et al., 2014;Schmitt & Buss, 2001). Hence, Symons (1979) and Buss et al. (1992) hypothesized that sexual selection favored cognitive biases to dissuade a possible betrayal from a partner and increase the protection of the mating bond. With SDJ emerging as the result of sexual asymmetries in the allocation of resources for reproduction between the members of the romantic couple (Trivers, 1972). ...
Evidence is abundant that evolution by selection has produced sex differences in the design of adaptations to solve the problems surrounding reproduction. A prime example is the design of human jealousy, which research suggests is triggered by distinct evoking acts that are specific challenges for women and men in their exclusive reproductive bond. It follows that jealousy would be directed toward driving away interlopers who could potentially threaten the bond with the romantic partner or increase mate retention efforts in response to sex-specific threats. To explore this possibility, we use as a methodological innovation an economic game for the evocation of jealousy. With a modified dictator game, we showed men and women in a committed relationship, conditions in which the partner or an intrasexual rival allocates money to (investing condition), or obtains money from (receiving condition), the partner or an opposite sex third party that they recently met. A sample of 56 heterosexual couples (n = 112) participated in a laboratory setting. Our results show the different scenarios of this dictator game exerted the expected evocation of jealousy (controlling individual differences), with women being more jealous by the partner’s allocation of resources to a rival, and men reporting slightly more jealousy by their partner receiving money from a rival. We discuss the implications of this method to advance the comprehension of the adaptive function of sex differences in jealousy, the use of economic games, and possible modifications to improve the similarity of the game to a real assessment of actual male jealousy.
... The studies conducted have revealed that there are differences between genders in terms of reported jealousy status, level, type, reactions to jealousy and coping mechanisms (Mathes and Severa 1981, White 1981a, Hansen 1982, Pines and Aronson 1983, Peretti and Pudowski 1997. Consequently, while men tend to find partner behavior towards sexual infidelity more disturbing than emotional infidelity, the opposite is true for women (Buss et al. 1992, Geary et al. 1995, Buunk et al. 1996, Hupka and Bank 1996, Pines and Friedman 1998, Wiederman and LaMar 1998, Cann et al. 2001, Cramer et al. 2001, Demirtas 2004, Edlund and Sagarin 2017, Pavela Banai et al. 2022. ...
Jealousy in a romantic relationship can have destructive consequences, such as ending relationships and leading to violent behaviors. Despite being heavily studied internationally for nearly three decades, it has not received sufficient attention in Turkish psychology literature. From this point of view, this article aims to address romantic jealousy from various perspectives, with the intention of providing ideas for future studies on the subject. The article discusses jealousy in a romantic relationship, taking various theoretical explanations into account to understand its triggers and forms of expression. It also includes the findings of various studies on jealousy in the international and Turkish literature. Finally, the article provides application and research suggestions based on the information obtained. According to the results of the reviewed studies, although jealousy is a universal emotion, there are intercultural differences in the experience of jealousy. As demonstrated by the reviewed studies, further research is necessary in both international literature and Türkiye to fully comprehend the dynamics of romantic jealousy and prevent its destructive consequences.
... Please click continue when you are ready to begin the visualization task. The infidelity threat condition was based on previous research invoking imagined infidelity threat (Buss et al., 1992;Harris, 2000): ...
Jealousy may have evolved to motivate adaptive compensatory behavior in response to threats to a valued relationship. This suggests that jealousy follows a temporal sequence: A perceived relational threat induces state feelings of jealousy which in turn motivates compensatory behavior, such as mate retention effort. Yet to date, tests of this mediation model have been limited to cross-sectional data. This study is the first to experimentally test this theoretical model. Men and women (N = 222) who were currently in committed romantic relationships were primed with an imagined partner infidelity (versus control) scenario. Participants then completed measures of state jealousy and intended mate retention behavior. Results found that those primed with the infidelity threat scenario experienced an increase in state jealousy, which in turn predicted more intended benefit-provisioning and cost-inflicting mate retention. Findings suggest that jealousy mediated the relationship between infidelity threat and intended mate retention behavior, supporting the evolutionary account of state jealousy.
E tanulmány áttekinti a morálfilozófia, jogfilozófia és pszichológia közötti kapcsolatokat, különös tekintettel a morális érzelmek szerepére a döntéshozatalban. A morális érzelmek megkülönböztetik a Homo sapienst a Homo oeconomicustól. De mégis honnan jönnek ezek a jogi normarendszer hátterében is meghúzódó morális megérzések? Az itt bemutatott kutatások szerint ezek nemcsak társadalmi konstrukciók, hanem evolúciós múltunkhoz kötődő, belénk programozott erkölcsi intuíciók. E szemlélet szerint ugyanúgy, ahogy alapvető nyelvi ösztönnel jövünk a világra, rendelkezünk egy alapvető morális ösztönnel is. Ismétlődő szelekciós kihívásokra, mint például egy csoporton belüli osztozkodás vagy a potyautas magatartás büntetése, az élőlényekben morális viselkedéses hajlamok alakulnak ki. Ez a morális ösztön a tágabb állatvilágban gyökerezik, már a fejlett emlősökkel megjelenik a protomoralitás. A tanulmány bemutatja a morális ösztönök mellett szóló érveket, hogyan formálják azok a jog szerkezetét, illetve hogy mikor vezethetnek félre a morális heurisztikák. Az emberi és állati viselkedés hasonlóságai rávilágítanak a morális és jogi rendszerek közötti összefüggésekre, valamint az evolúciós pszichológia lehetséges magyarázataira a morális viselkedés és a jogi szabályozás kialakulásában.
Although the attraction and selection of mates are central to human reproduction, the retention of acquired mates is often necessary to actualize the promise of reproductive effort. Three empirical studies used act frequency methods to identify, assess the reported performance frequencies of, and evaluate the perceived effectiveness of 19 tactics and 104 acts of human mate guarding and retention. In Study 1 (N = 105), a hierarchical taxonomy of tactics was developed from a pool of nominated acts. We then assessed the reported performance frequencies of 19 retention tactics and 104 acts and tested three hypotheses derived from evolutionary models in an undergraduate sample (N = 102). Study 2 (N = 46) provided an independent test of these hypotheses by assessing the perceived effectiveness of each tactic. Discussion draws implications for sexual poaching, susceptibility to pair-bond defection, and the power of act frequency methods for preserving the proximate specificity and systemic complexity inherent in human mating processes.
Infanticide among animals is a widespread phenomenon with no unitary explanation. Although the detrimental outcome for the infant is fairly constant, individuals responsible for infanticide may or may not benefit, and when they gain in fitness there may be considerable variation in how they gain. Sources of increased fitness from infanticide include: (1) exploitation of the infant as a resource, (2) elimination of a competitor for resources, (3) increased maternal survival or lifetime reproductive success for either mother or father by elimination of an ill-timed, handicapped, or supernumerary infant, and, finally, (4) increased access for individuals of one sex for reproductive investment by the other sex at the expense of same-sex competitors. Predicted attributes of the perpetrators (such as sex and degree of relatedness to the infant), attributes of the victim (i.e., age and vulnerability), as well as schedule of gain, vary for each class. Under some circumstances, individuals commit infanticide which does not result in any prospect for gain; such instances are considered nonadaptive or “pathological.” In those cases where infanticide does on the average increase fitness, selection pressures favoring it have arisen as a result of the extensive and time-consuming investment involved in production of young, and the extreme vulnerability that characterizes infancy in many animals.
Advances an evolution-based model of strategic conflict between men and women. Conflict is predicted to occur whenever the reproductive strategy adopted by one sex interferes with that adopted by the opposite sex. Three empirical studies tested hypotheses based on this model. Study 1 (N = 528) examined sex differences in sources of anger and upset (e.g., about sexual aggressiveness or withholding) among 2 samples of Ss differing in age and martial status. Study 2 (N = 60) assessed the perceived magnitude of upset each sex would experience when confronted by each source. Study 3 (N = 214) tested predictions within married couples about sex differences in sources of marital and sexual dissatisfaction. These studies provide modest support for the strategic conflict model and implicate the negative emotions of anger and upset as proximate mechanisms that alert men and women to strategic interference. The diversity of upset elicitors discovered here, such as being condescending, possessive, neglecting, abusive, inconsiderate, moody, and self-centered, point to the limitations of this evolutionary model and the need to develop more comprehensive models of conflict between the sexes.
Sexual jealousy functions to defend paternity confidence and is therefore expected to be a ubiquitous aspect of male psychology. Several lines of evidence confirm this expectation.Cross-cultural and historical reviews of adultery law reveal remarkable conceptual consistency: unauthorized sexual contact with a married woman is a crime and the victim is the husband.We find male sexual jealousy to be the leading substantive issue in social conflict homicides in Detroit. A cross-cultural review of homicide indicates the ubiquity of this motive.Social psychological studies of “normal” jealousy and psychiatric studies of “morbid” jealousy both suggest that male and female jealousy are qualitatively different in ways consistent with theoretical predictions.Coercive constraint of female sexuality by the use or threat of male violence appears to be cross-culturally universal. Several authors have suggested that there are societies in which women's sexual liberty is restricted only by incest prohibitions, but the ethnographies explicity contradict this claim.
80 steadily dating couples were assigned by sex to jealous or nonjealous role-playing conditions in which one partner was asked to assume a distancing role while the other was asked to overcome the distance and try to establish closeness with the partner. Using Raush, et al.'s (1974) method of studying interpersonal conflict through improvisation, it was found that persons in distant roles and experiencing jealousy used significantly more rejection and coercion, especially guilt-induction, than did subjects who experienced distance for nonjealous reasons. No sex differences were noted with regard to the use of rejection and coercion. However, men selected their issues of jealousy as sexual while women selected jealous issues which involved a loss of time and attention.
Homicide is an extreme manifestation of interpersonal conflict with minimal reporting bias and can thus be used as a conflict "assay." Evolutionary models of social motives predict that genetic relationship will be associated with mitigation of conflict, and various analyses of homicide data support this prediction. Most "family" homicides are spousal homicides, fueled by male sexual proprietariness. In the case of parent-offspring conflict, an evolutionary model predicts variations in the risk of violence as a function of the ages, sexes, and other characteristics of protagonists, and these predictions are upheld in tests with data on infanticides, parricides, and filicides.
Male ring doves exhibit less courtship and more aggressive behavior toward females that have recently associated with other males than to females that have been isolated. The difference in response may be related to the differing probability of cuckoldry.
The frequency of true altruism in nature requires assessment because, if true altruism is common, Darwin's theory of natural selection is inadequate to account for all of evolution. An experiment provided birds with the opportunity to behave truly altruistically. One member of each of 25 wild pairs was collected. Ten of these were replaced naturally by courting birds, or consorts. Only one consort fostered the young of her prospective mate, and her behavior was interpretable as a reproductive error. Other consorts behaved reproductively selfishly.