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A systematic review of romantic jealousy in relationships

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Romantic jealousy is a complex emotion activated by a real or perceived threat to the relationship. Romantic jealousy is an important phenomenon in public health, as it brings consequences for the subject, the couple and the rival, even to the point of death. This theory-based study performed a systematic review of the research published in major international databases and platforms, as of December, 2016. The results of 230 studies that met the inclusion criteria were classified in pursuance of the variables associated with jealousy: a) personal variables (differences in sex, sexual orientation, hormones / use of contraceptives, self-esteem, attachment style and use of alcohol); b) interpersonal variables (romantic love, satisfaction and violence); c) sociocultural variables (transcultural comparisons, features of the rival and social networks). Future studies, with sufficient statistical robustness, should achieve a clinical formulation that indicates the relevance and predictive power of each variable.
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Copyright 2017 by Sociedad Chilena de Psicología Clínica
ISSN 0716-6184 (impresa) · ISSN 0718-4808 (en línea)
TERAPIA PSICOLÓGICA
2017, Vol. 35, Nº 2, 203-212
A systematic review of romantic jealousy in relationships
Una revisión sistemática de los celos románticos en la relación de pareja
Nancy Consuelo Martínez-León
Universidad de Granada, España
Universidad El Bosque, Colombia
Juan José Peña
Universidad El Bosque, Colombia
Hernán Salazar
Universidad El Bosque, Colombia
Andrea García
Universidad El Bosque, Colombia
Juan Carlos Sierra
Centro de Investigación Mente, Cerebro y Comportamiento (CIMCYC), Universidad de Granada, España
Rec (27 de febrero de 2017) Acept (2 de mayo de 2017)
Abstract
Romantic jealousy is a complex emotion activated by a real or perceived threat to the relationship. Romantic
jealousy is an important phenomenon in public health, as it brings consequences for the subject, the couple
and the rival, even to the point of death. This theory-based study performed a systematic review of the re-
search published in major international databases and platforms, as of December, 2016. The results of 230
studies that met the inclusion criteria were classied in pursuance of the variables associated with jealousy:
a) personal variables (differences in sex, sexual orientation, hormones / use of contraceptives, self-esteem,
attachment style and use of alcohol); b) interpersonal variables (romantic love, satisfaction and violence); c)
sociocultural variables (transcultural comparisons, features of the rival and social networks). Future studies,
with sufcient statistical robustness, should achieve a clinical formulation that indicates the relevance and
predictive power of each variable.
Keywords: Jealousy, indelity, relationship, systematic review, spousal violence.
Resumen
Los celos románticos son una emoción compleja que se activa ante una amenaza real o percibida a la relación
sentimental. Constituyen un fenómeno relevante en salud pública por las consecuencias para sí mismo, la
pareja y el rival, llegando incluso hasta la muerte. El presente estudio teórico realiza una revisión sistemática
de investigaciones publicadas en las principales bases de datos y plataformas internacionales, hasta diciembre
del 2016. Los resultados de los 230 estudios que cumplían con los criterios de inclusión fueron clasicados
en función de las variables asociadas a los celos: a) personales (diferencias de sexo, orientación sexual, hor-
monas/uso de anticonceptivos, autoestima, estilo de apego y consumo de alcohol); b) interpersonales (amor
romántico, satisfacción y violencia); y c) socioculturales (comparaciones transculturales, características del
rival y redes sociales). Futuros estudios, con suciente robustez estadística, deberán lograr una formulación
clínica que indique la relevancia y el poder de predicción de cada variable.
Palabras clave: Celos, indelidad, pareja, revisión sistemática, violencia conyugal.
* Correspondence: should be addressed to Nancy Consuelo Martínez-León, Psychology Department, Universidad El Bosque. Carrera 9 No. 131 A – 02,
Bogotá (Colombia), E-mail: martineznancy@unbosque.edu.co
Note: The authors would like to acknowledge the members of the research project, “Multidimensional analysis of the conduct of jealousy,” of the El
Bosque University and the Psychologist Natalia Caraballo, for their contributions.
Nancy Martínez-León, Juan Peña, Hernán Salazar, Andrea García y Juan Carlos Sierra
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Nancy Martínez-León, Juan Peña, Hernán Salazar, Andrea García y Juan Carlos Sierra
Introduction
Romantic jealousy is a complex affective emotion which
is akin to the very human nature in intimate relationships;
romantic jealousy is also indispensable for social order
(Clanton, 1996). Romantic jealousy is the subject of study
of human and social sciences (De Silva, 1997; Osamu,
2016) from different psychological and psychiatric currents
(Pines, 1992; Soyka, Naber, & Volcker, 1991).White (1981)
states that romantic jealousy can be dened “as a complex
set of thoughts, feelings and actions that follow a threat to
self-esteem and / or threaten the existence or quality of the
relationship. These threats are generated by the perception
of a real or potential attraction between the partner and
a (perhaps imaginary) rival” (p.24). Hart and Legerstee
(2013) state that jealousy is a state which – depending on
the context – can arouse emotions like sadness (loss), anger
(treason), or fear or anxiety (loneliness).
There are different types of romantic jealousy. Buunk
(1997), subdivides them into: a) reactive jealousy, caused by
intimate behavior of a partner with a third party; b) anxious
jealousy, focused on the possibility that the couple is sexually
or emotionally involved with someone else; c) preventive
jealousy, aimed at preventing intimate contact of the partner
with a third party upon slight indications of interest. Pfeiffer
and Wong (1989), while developing the Multidimensional
Jealousy Scale, argued that jealousy can be: a) emotional
jealousy – reaction to the perceived threat; b) cognitive
jealousy – concerns about the involvement of the partner in
indelity c) behavioral jealousy – monitoring behaviors. The
American Psychiatric Association (2013) DSM-5, classies
jealousy as follows: (a) obsessive jealousy, as a “specied
related disorder” of another compulsive-obsessive disorder;
and (b) jealousy-type within the delusional disorder.
Romantic jealousy can become pathological, with serious
consequences, when the ability to control it is lost. This may
lead even to the point of killing the partner (Mužinié et al.,
2003), as concluded by Harris (2003) in the meta-analysis
of the literature of jealousy-driven homicides (20 reports
from different countries) and the Chicago Homicide Dataset,
which reported 1,361 victims between the years 1965 and
2000, where sexual jealousy and sexual rivalry were present
and the offenders accused their victims of indelity. After
the murder, 275 perpetrators committed suicide (Block &
Block, 2012).
Research on the topic has a relatively short history. Its
beginnings date back to a symposium on the Convention
of the American Psychological Association in 1977, where
jealousy and envy were legitimized as a topic of scientic
research (Salovey, 1991). However, it was not until the
mid-90s that there began to emerge a large number of
scientic studies analyzing jealousy and its relationship with
different variables (Hart & Legerstee, 2013). For example,
the existence of sex differences based on the evolutionary
hypothesis, depending on the situation of indelity (emotio-
nal or sexual) that activates it (Bendixen, Kennair, & Buss,
2015); the inuence of sexual orientation (Alves, Pereira,
Tieme, & Otta, 2006; Dijkstra, Barelds, & Groothof, 2013);
the specic characteristics of the rival that causes jealousy
(Buunk & Dijkstra, 2015; Massar & Buunk, 2016); trans-
cultural comparisons (Croucher et al., 2012; Fernández,
Sierra, Zubeidat, & Vera-Villarroel, 2006; Zandbergen &
Brown, 2015); and even the relationship of jealousy with
hormonal changes in estrogen in women (Cobey et al., 2012).
Similarly, studies have been conducted on the way social
networks (Facebook and Snapchat) may continuously incite
this emotion (Halpem, Katz, & Carril, 2017).
It is also stated that romantic jealousy is associated with
more insecure and anxious attachments (Miller, Denes, Diaz,
& Buck, 2014), low self-esteem and insecurity (DiBello,
Rodriguez, Hadden, & Neighbors, 2015) and higher levels
of romantic love (Swami et al., 2012). The potentially in-
herent elevated levels of aggression have been associated
with alcohol problems (Rodriguez, DiBello, & Neighbors,
2015), which would explain the perpetration of frequent
episodes of intimate partner violence (Kar & O’Leary,
2013; Llor-Esteban, García-Jiménez, Ruiz-Hernández, &
Godoy-Fernández, 2016; López-Ossorio, González Álvarez,
Buquerín Pascual, García, & Buela-Casal, 2017) and end
up affecting satisfaction, quality and commitment in the
relationship (Dandurand & Lafontaine, 2014). The dating
violence start from adolescence (Cortés-Ayala et al., 2015;
Ureña, Romera, Casas, Viejo, & Ortega-Ruiz, 2015). In turn,
this has also become one of the most frequent reasons for
consultation in couples’ therapy.
In light of the importance of the subject from the scien-
tic, social and public-health related viewpoints, absence of
review articles – as far as is known – compiling studies of
the problem, and the multiplicity of associated variables, this
theory-based study undertook to synthesize the best scientic
evidence available through a systematic review of the main
factors involved in romantic jealousy in relationships. To this
end, items were organized and grouped into three types of
variables: (a) personal variables (differences in sex, sexual
orientation, hormones / use of contraceptives, self-esteem,
attachment style and use of alcohol); (b) interpersonal
variables (romantic love, satisfaction and violence); (c)
sociocultural variables (transcultural comparisons, features
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TERAPIA PSICOLÓGICA 2017, Vol. 35, Nº 2, 203-212
of the rival and social networks). The review was conduc-
ted by explicitly and rigorously using methods to identify,
critically evaluate and synthesize the most relevant studies
(Perestelo-Pérez, 2013).
Method
Literature review
A bibliography search was conducted on EBSCOEhost
and ProQuest platforms, as well as the following databases:
Scopus, Web of Science, PsycINFO, PsyNet, Redalyc and
Science Direct. The search terms used were: “jealousy”,
“jealous” and in Spanish: “celos”, “celotipia” – types of
jealousy. The search focused on the titles of scientic papers
published in English or Spanish as of December 2016, in
the areas of Health Sciences and Psychology.
Inclusion criteria
The papers selected were articles wherein romantic
jealousy is related with some other variable in adolescents
and / or adults.
Procedure
The items are classied by variables and year of publica-
tion. Subsequently, the items that met the inclusion criteria
were identied. Whenever difculties were encountered
as to compliance with the criteria, the articles were read
by two reviewers and selected or ruled out by consensus.
Finally, the information was recorded in a bibliographic
record database.
Coding the papers
The entirety of the text of the articles selected was
reviewed, and the following information was extracted:
(a) author/s and year of publication; (b) methodology,
identifying the study design as rated by Montero and León
(2007); (c) sample – recording the number of participants,
gender, sexual orientation and sample type; (d) method for
evaluating romantic jealousy; (e) main results obtained.
Lastly, the papers were classied in the organization va-
riables proposed.
Results
Two hundred and thirty scientic articles published
between 1978 and December 2016 were reviewed. Figure
1 illustrates the process of selecting the articles. The
vast majority of articles discussed three to ve variables
simultaneously.
The entirety of the text of the articles selected was reviewed, and the following information was
extracted: a) author/s and year of publication; b) methodology, identifying the study design as rated by
Montero and León (2007); c) sample recording the number of participants, gender, sexual orientation
and sample type; d) method for evaluating romantic jealousy; e) main results obtained. Lastly, the
papers were classified in the organization variables proposed.
Results
230 scientific articles published between 1978 and December 2016 were reviewed. Figure 1 illustrates
the process of selecting the articles. The vast majority of articles discussed three to five variables
simultaneously.
Figure 1. Flowchart of information
through the different stages of the
systematic review-
The authors with the highest
production were A.P. Buunk, B.P. Buunk,
P. Dijkstra, R.B. Hupka, J. Canto and
C.R. Harris. The methodology used in
the studies compiled was ex post facto
SYSTEMATIC REVIEW OF ROMANTIC JEALOUSY
600
Records or citations
identified in the search
95
Double records deleted
270
Total number of articles
ruled out on account of
noncompliance with
505
Total number of articles
selected to decide on
eligibility thereof
230
Total number of papers
included in the systematic
review synthesis
5
References excluded for
no having access to full
text
Figure 1. Flowchart of information through the different stages
of the systematic review-
The authors with the highest production were A.P.
Buunk, P. Dijkstra, R.B. Hupka, J. Canto and C.R. Harris.
The methodology used in the studies compiled was ex post
facto type (71.7%), quasi-experimental (21.7%) and experi-
mental (6.5%). Over half of the studies used college student
samples (60%), followed by general population (27%) and
mixed samples of students and general population (10.4%).
The study conducted by Frederick and Fales (2016) used
the largest and most diverse sample (63,894 people). The
majority of studies measured samples of both sexes (90.4%).
Finally, the research included heterosexual participants
(39.1%), only homosexuals (1.3%) and participants from
different orientations (10.9%). 48.7% of the studies had no
reports vis-à-vis this variable.
Around 40 different instruments have been used in
measuring jealousy. Items derived from scales, auto stan-
dardized reports and questionnaires developed ad hoc. The
most widely used instruments have been the forced choice
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Nancy Martínez-León, Juan Peña, Hernán Salazar, Andrea García y Juan Carlos Sierra
measures based on the Indelity Dilemmas (Buss, Larsen,
& Semmelroth, 1992; Buss et al., 1999), which were used
in 62 studies (24.6%); the Multidimensional Jealousy Scale
(Pfeiffer & Wong, 1989) in 21 (8.3%); the Interpersonal
Jealousy Scale (Mathes & Severa, 1981) used in 13 studies
(5.2%); the Jealousy Scale (Buunk, 1997) used in ten studies
(4%) and the Jealousy Evoking Scenario (Dijkstra & Buunk,
2002) used in seven studies (2.8%) and 59 studies used ad
hoc questionnaires (23.4%). The main results of each of the
variables are integrated below.
Personal variables
One of the most controversial and most widely researched
variables in romantic jealousy is sex – namely, the difference
between men and women in response to different types of
indelity (emotional or sexual indelity), as measured in
scenarios of forced choice and / or continuous measurements
of the physiological responses. The evolutionary hypothesis
states that men may experience more jealousy in the event
of indelity of a sexual nature, and women may do so with
emotional indelity (Bendixen et al., 2015; Buss et al., 1992).
These differences can be moderated mainly by household
size, income and roles (Zengel et al., 2013), processing
signals of emotional and sexual indelity (Schützwohl,
2005), previous experience of indelity (Tagler, 2010) and
sexual orientation. For example, responses both in homo-
sexual men and women – as compared with heterosexuals
of the same sex – were less intense in terms of jealousy
than in scenarios that describe their partner having sex with
another person (Dijkstra et al., 2013). Similarly, a higher
percentage of bisexual men dating women reported being
vexed more by sexual indelity than bisexual men dating
men and bisexual women (Scherer, Akers, & Kolbe, 2013).
However, the evolutionary theory has been debated
by the type of measurement used (forced choice) and the
hypothetical scenario of possible indelity, as the latter may
be a measurement item that may produce errors (DeSteno,
Bartlett, Braverman, & Salovey, 2002). Studies that do not
use this type of measurement found that men and women
reported high levels of jealousy before sexual indelity
(Green & Sabini, 2006; Harris, 2000).
Given the multiplicity of studies about this variable, there
have been three meta-analyses. In the rst meta-analysis,
Harris (2003) presents 32 items and concludes – through the
study of ve different lines of research – that there is lack
of evidence on sex differences, as there is great variability
amongst men in various samples and only a minority of men
reported that sexual indelity could be worse than emotional
indelity. Harris suggests that this inconsistency in results
can be better explained from a social-cognitive perspective.
The second meta-analysis, presented by Carpenter (2012)
with 54 articles, states that data was not consistent with the
evolutionary hypothesis, as the tendency of men to respond
in this way was given only in samples of American students,
whilst the other data supports the social-cognitive theory.
However, the third meta-analysis – made by Sagarin et al.
(2012) with 40 research papers on the subject – says that
sex differences in jealousy is not a forced choice item; these
emerge using continuous measurements and are not limited
to responses to a hypothetical indelity (Edlund, Heider,
Sherer, Farc, & Sagarin, 2006).
Moreover, it has been reported that – at the biological
level – the phases of the menstrual cycle are associated
with high levels of jealousy, both in single women and
women with a partner (Cobey et al., 2012). However, this
differs when using contraceptive hormones during the in-
fertile cycle; jealousy levels in women with a partner were
signicantly higher (Cobey, Roberts, & Buunk, 2013). A
signicant negative association was also found between the
2D:4D ratio (prenatal testosterone) and emotional intensity
vis-à-vis sexual indelity (Fussell, Rowe, & Park, 2011).
Another individual variable associated with romantic
jealousy is self-esteem. Self-evaluation and self-awareness
are vital in social relationships, and may be mediated by
the opinion others hold about one (Leary, Tambor, Terdal,
& Downs, 1995). It is assumed that individuals with low
self-esteem are more vulnerable to the experience of jealousy
(Mathes, 1992). Initially, some studies found no correlation
between self-esteem and romantic jealousy (Buunk, 1981;
White, 1981). Later on, a negative correlation was found
(Buunk, 1982; Khanchandani & Durham, 2009; Mcintosh,
1989; Salovey & Rodin, 1991). Most research on the subject
has been conducted with explicit (controlled, conscious)
measures of self-esteem, without taking into account the
recent development of measures of implicit aspects (e.g.
automatic or unconscious aspects) of self-esteem (DeSteno,
Valdesolo, & Bartlett, 2006). When the two measures were
used, it was found that men with high levels of jealousy had
explicit low self-esteem, unlike women who had high levels
of implicit self-esteem (Stieger, Preyss, & Voracek, 2012).
As for attachment style, it is recognized that the rst
links a person establishes in their life can be determina-
tive of their relationships in adulthood (Bartholomew &
Horowitz, 1991). Sharpsteen and Kirkpatrick (1997) and
Retana and Sanchez (2008) argue that people with different
attachment styles have qualitatively different experiences
of romantic jealousy. Burchell and Ward (2011) found that
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TERAPIA PSICOLÓGICA 2017, Vol. 35, Nº 2, 203-212
avoidant attachment type, along with having been victims
of sexual indelity, are signicant predictors for men to
experience pathological jealousy. Buunk (1997) found – in
three measures of jealousy – that those who had anxious-
ambivalent attachment style were more jealous than those
with an avoidant style. Also Rodriguez, DiBello, Overup
and Neighbors (2015) concluded that anxious attachment
moderates the association between trust and jealousy, which
in turn affects satisfaction at the couple level (Dandurand
& Lafontaine, 2014). In addition, women who grew up
without the presence of their father reported more anxious
and preventive jealousy (Brummen-Girigori, Buunk,
Dijkstra, & Girigori, 2016); and it is stated that jealousy
may be mediated by differential affection – comparison
with a sibling – during childhood (Rauer & Volling, 2007)
and the last children were more jealous than the rstborn
(Buunk, 1997).
Interpersonal variables: Relationship
Jealousy not only affects the person who feels and
expresses it, but also the partner and their emotional re-
lationship. One of the variables researched was romantic
love – understood as afliative necessity and dependence,
willingness to help and exclusivity and absorption (Rubin,
1970), which have been positively correlated with romantic
jealousy (Orosz, Zoltán, Kiss, Farkas, & Roland-Lévy, 2015;
White, 1984). Retana and Sanchez (2008) found – more in
women than in men – a relationship between addictive love
and jealousy. Sanchez (2009) indicated that people in the
infatuation (obsessive love) stage, followed by those in the
stage of desperate love (harassment and persistent pursuit
of interaction) are those who experience more jealousy.
Swami et al. (2012) reported that the bias present in “blind
love” (positive perception of physical attractiveness of the
partner) in romantic love positively predicts the experience
of anxious jealousy.
With regard to satisfaction and quality in the relationship,
Mathes, Roter and Joerger (1982) reported that jealousy is
negatively associated with marital happiness and positively
associated with the frequency of altercations in the couple.
High scores of jealousy, especially cognitive jealousy
(Elphinston & Noller, 2011) indicated minor adjustment,
satisfaction and perception of quality in the relationship
(Barelds & Barelds-Dijkstra, 2007; DiBello et al., 2015;
Khanchandani & Durham, 2009). Mathes (1986) made
two applications of the Interpersonal Jealousy Scale to the
same sample of people with a period of seven years, and
indicated that the effects of jealousy could be positive, in
that couples were married and their love continued.
Finally, there is strong evidence in the association bet-
ween (physical and verbal) violence and jealousy (Kar &
O’Leary, 2013). The latter are identied as two of the most
important mediators to increase the presence of morbid /
delusional jealousy; those suffering from this condition
reportedly have a greater number of attempted murders
against the partner (Easton & Shackelford, 2009) and alcohol
problems (Rodriguez et al., 2015; Foran & O’Leary, 2008).
DiBello, Neighbors, Rodriguez and Lindgren (2014) found
that drinking was a coping strategy and a mediator between
the most negative aspects of jealousy (cognitive type). Other
potentially moderating factors are the cultural construction
made of possessiveness, acceptance of violence in situations
like indelity and anger (Adams & Williams, 2014; Belus
et al., 2014); stress, lifestyle and social support, along with
beliefs of male domination (Wang, Parish, Laumann, & Luo,
2009). Attachment style and the level of jealousy were also
associated with cyberstalking or harassment via Internet
(Strawhun, Adams, & Huss, 2013). Increased frequency of
violence is indicated in distanced marriages and with young
women (Stieglitz, Gurven, Kaplan, & Winking, 2012).
Sociocultural variables
The sociocultural environment is considered a mediator
of this complex interpersonal emotion, as beliefs and models
can be congured, and communication networks can be esta-
blished to favor or not the appearance of romantic jealousy.
In a study conducted in three countries, Hupka and Zaleski
(1990) argue that the problems concerning situations of
jealousy and envy are similar across industrialized countries,
but the particular events that cause them differ. Buunk and
Hupka (1987) studied populations of seven countries, and
found that for almost all the subjects – kissing, irting and
getting involved sexually evoke a jealous response, whereas
dancing, hugging and having sexual fantasies evoked no
feelings of jealousy. Buunk, Angleitner, Oubaid and Buss
(1996) argue that sex differences are consistent in three
countries. However, Zandbergen and Brown (2015) indicate
that culture in sexual indelity could be a better predictor of
jealousy than would gender. For example, Geary, Rumsey,
Bow-Thomas and Hoard (1995) reported that American
men expressed more anxiety regarding sexual indelity as
compared to their counterparts from China. Similar results
were obtained in the comparison of Cuban men vis-à-vis
Spanish men (Canto, Moscato, & Moreno-Jimenez, 2010).
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Nancy Martínez-León, Juan Peña, Hernán Salazar, Andrea García y Juan Carlos Sierra
Similarly, a study was conducted on the type of rival that
evokes jealousy, through the inventory of 56 characteris-
tics grouped into ve factors: Social Dominance, Physical
Attractiveness, Physical Dominance, Seductive Behavior
and Social Status (Dijkstra & Buunk, 2002). Particularly,
physical dominion in both sexes (body and face attractive,
youth, height) and seductive voice (Buunk, Park, Zurriaga,
Klavina, & Massar, 2008; Buunk & Dijkstra, 2015; O’Connor
& Feinberg, 2012) can be threatening. Women are also
affected by the kindness and understanding of the female
rival (Ottesen, Nordeide, Andreaseen, Stronen, & Pallesen,
2011). In cross-cultural comparisons, Buunk and Dijkstra
(2015) report that no differences were found between Iraqi
men and women and those from Kurdistan, whilst differences
were found in the study with populations from Spain and
Argentina (Buunk, Castro, Zurriaga, & González, 2011) and
Kurdistan-Iraqi people responded with much more jealousy
to a variety of features of the rival than did the subjects in
the study with Dutch population.
Finally, research is being conducted on the way the use
of social networks like Facebook is related to jealousy, in
light of the ambiguous information exposed in this realm,
which feeds back images of real or imaginary situations
(Muise, Christodes, & Desmarais, 2009). In this vein, it
was found that women are more likely to feel jealous as
compared to men (McAndrew & Shah, 2013). Likewise,
access to (private or public) messages on Facebook can
encourage jealousy, thereby affecting the emotional state,
the perceived threat and the behavior of the person (Cohen,
Browan, & Borchert, 2014). In addition, the intrusion on
Facebook is related to satisfaction with the partner, through
cognitive jealousy and monitoring behaviors (Elphinston &
Noller, 2011). It was found that women are more involved in
these activities when they feel jealous (Muise, Christodes,
& Desmarais, 2014). However, it was found that Snapchat
can produce more jealousy than Facebook as compared to
other social networks, thereby paving the pathway to other
forms of interactions and data collection (Utz, Muscanell,
& Khalid, 2015).
Discussion
This study provides the rst systematic review on romantic
jealousy and potentially associated personal, interpersonal
and sociocultural variables. Thus, we have collected and
provided a reliable and accessible synthesis of the scientic
papers published between 1978 and 2016.
The studies analyzed are mostly ex post facto, and
show little diversity as to the origin of the sample – mostly
university students. Therefore, it would be appropriate
to consider more representative samples of communities
(Frederick & Fales, 2016), and to evaluate other moderating
variables such as marital status (Gatzeva & Paik, 2011), age
(Dijkstra, Barelds, & Groothof, 2010), existence of children
or previous experience of indelity (Zengel et al., 2013). It
is advisable to replicate experimental design studies con-
ducted with variables such as self-esteem (DeSteno et al.,
2006), the status of the rival (Massar & Buunk, 2016) and
emoticons on Facebook (Hudson et al., 2015), inter alia.
Moreover, 41% of the studies did not report the participants’
sexual orientation, and this may be an important mediating
variable (Dijkstra et al., 2013).
It is emphasized that there is a large number of instru-
ments (about 40) which emphasize the evaluation of different
components of the construct. Most have adequate levels of
validity and reliability, albeit only a few feature conrma-
tory factor analysis in different samples (Martínez-León,
Mathes, Avendaño, Peña, & Sierra, in press). We suggest
that the measurement include the results of research on
stimuli that may evoke jealousy (Dijkstra et al., 2010), as
well as on social situations that may incite more jealousy
than others, such as “afternoon coffee vs. dinner invitation”
(Kevin, Knifn, & Wansink, 2012), seles (Halpem et al.,
2017), features of the rival (Buunk et al., 2011) and social
media monitoring (Dainton & Stokes, 2015). Evaluation
of romantic jealousy should be multimodal, integrating the
results of scales, records, interviews with the partner, and
nonverbal measures of emotional stress markers (DeSteno
et al., 2006).
The review conrms that jealousy is not only affected
by personal and interpersonal factors, but by more complex
variables linked to the sociocultural environment. One of
the personal variables – difference of sexes – in light of a
situation of sexual or emotional indelity, has for decades
been the most controversial and studied variable. In this
regard, each of the perspectives – both the evolutionary
theory (Buss et al., 1992) and the cognitive social theory
(Harris, 2003) – have received sufcient empirical support.
Although the theory of “dual perspective” emerges in this
divergence (DeSteno & Salovey, 1996), it is important to
include both methodologies –forced choice and continuous
measures (Bendixen et al., 2015; Sagarin et al., 2012) – and
to extend the studies to different cultures (Carpenter, 2012).
In this vein, the importance of assessing biological
aspects is also evident, as is the case of the inuence of the
use of contraceptive pills (Cobey et al., 2013), the phase of
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TERAPIA PSICOLÓGICA 2017, Vol. 35, Nº 2, 203-212
the menstrual cycle (Cobey et al., 2012) and the 2:D 4:D
ratio, prenatal exposure to testosterone (Bendixen et al.,
2015.) in self-reporting jealousy. Similarly, prevalence of
morbid jealousy was found in patients with Parkinson under
dopaminergic therapy (Poletti et al., 2012) and in patients
with brain damage (Kuruppuarachchi & Seneviratne, 2011).
On the other hand – according to the results – self-esteem
can be one of the major mediators of the jealousy response
(DeSteno et al., 2006), as well as attachment, where there is
consensus in that an anxious, fearful and insecure attachment
may partly explain romantic jealousy (Belus et al., 2014).
However, the results are inconclusive in other variables
such as infatuation.
Romantic jealousy is an emotion awakened by a threat
and generates a behavior of opposition to the threat, which
is associated negatively to satisfaction in the relationship
(Dandurand & Lafontaine, 2014) depending on the type of
jealousy (morbid), experiences of past indelity (Stieglitz,
Gurven, Kaplan, & Winking, 2012) alcohol use (Dibello
et al., 2014) and the context and response of the partner. In
addition, romantic jealousy can lead to violence and fatal
consequences (Harris, 2003). However, there are few stu-
dies on the response of the partner upon the manifestation
of jealousy. It is known that the more amount of perceived
affection in the relationship, the less jealous response
(Goodboy, Horan, & Booth-Buttereld, 2012). It would
be interesting to include research conducted in the eld of
communications on the expression of jealousy towards the
partner and the experience of uncertainty (Bevan, 2009;
Pytlak, Zerega, & Houser, 2015) as well as how the part-
ner may be reinforcing the response of jealousy with their
attention and approval.
The features of the rival that evoke this emotion are
increasingly clearer, and it has been found at the transcul-
tural level that there are similar characteristics of the rival
causing jealousy, albeit more comparisons are to be made
(Buunk & Dijkstra, 2015). In addition, studies should be
conducted on homosexual population (Dijkstra & Buunk,
2002; Massar & Buunk, 2010). Another key element is
the analysis of the impact generated by social networks on
romantic jealousy, as they constantly feed the interperso-
nal relationships of millions of people (Dainton & Stokes,
2015). Facebook is the network which has the most studies
in this regard (Cohen et al., 2014; Elphinston & Noller,
2011), followed by Snapchat (Utz et al., 2015). However
further studies with WhatsApp and Instagram – inter alia
– are needed, as excess information – both registered and
reported by others – changes the way we interact and our
emotions in front of others.
In sum, this systematic review evinces that jealousy is a
complex phenomenon which can be affected by many factors.
Future studies with sufcient statistical robustness should
achieve a clinical formulation indicating the relevance and
predictive power of each of these factors, in order to shed
light on issues pertaining to psychopathology and underlying
hypotheses, in order to propose effective prevention dating
violence and intervention strategies.
Finally, it should be noted that this study had limitations
related to search criteria (the terms were limited to article
titles) and only included scientic empirical articles publis-
hed in English or Spanish on the topic of romantic jealousy.
Appendix
Attached in Teps website (www.teps.cl) is the list of 230
articles reviewed, including characteristics of the sample, ins-
truments used to assess romantic jealousy and the main results.
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... As for the relation between romantic jealousy and intimacy quality, the jury is still out. The vast majority of studies showed that romantic jealousy was a negative presence in romantic relationships, such as leading to aggression, expressions of conflict, less self-esteem, and low relationship satisfaction DiBello et al., 2015;Elphinston et al., 2013;Kyegombe et al., 2022;Martínez-León et al., 2017;Pichon et al., 2020). However, several studies indicated that romantic jealousy was positively related to relationship quality by acting as a signal of partner's affection for each other and evidence that the relationship was valued enough to protect (Elphinston et al., 2013;Guerrero, 2014). ...
... Based on the literature review above, we proposed the following hypothesis: differences in jealousy have been repeatedly investigated. A systematic review of romantic jealousy by Martínez-León et al. (2017) suggests that: "One of the most controversial and most widely researched variables in romantic jealousy is sex". Moreover, for relational aggression, many studies have found sex differences in it (e.g., Casper et al., 2020;Goldstein, 2011;Kawabata et al., 2020;Murray-Close et al., 2010). ...
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