Evidence for conditional sex differences in emotional but not in sexual jealousy at the automatic level of cognitive processing

Abstract

The two evolutionary psychological hypotheses that men react more jealous than women to sexual infidelity and women react more jealous than men to emotional infidelity are currently controversial because of apparently inconsistent results. We suggest that these inconsistencies can be resolved when the two hypotheses are evaluated separately and when the underlying cognitive processes are considered. We studied jealousy with forced-choice decisions and emotion ratings in a general population sample of 284 adults aged 20-30 years using six infidelity dilemmas and recordings of reaction times. The sex difference for emotional jealousy existed for decisions under cognitive constraint, was also evident in the decision speed, increased for faster decisions, and was stronger for participants with lower education. No evidence for a sex difference in sexual jealousy was found. Our results support the view of a specific female sensitivity to emotional infidelity that canalizes the development of an adaptive sex difference in emotional jealousy conditional to the sociocultural environment.

Effects of Sex, Sexual Orientation, Infidelity Expectations, and Love on Distress related to Emotional and Sexual Infidelity

“…However, the other ordinal effect, with men reporting significantly more distress to sexual infidelity than women, is typically not found, which leads to the absence of an interaction effect. Moreover, multiple within-sex analyses reveal that men are either equally or more distressed by emotional infidelity than sexual infidelity (Buss et al, 1992;Buss et al, 1999;Buunk et al, 1996;Edlund et al, 2006;Fernandez et al, 2007;Green & Sabini, 2006;Harris, 2002;Harris & Christenfeld, 1996;Penke & Asendorpf, 2008;Sabini & Green, 2004;Schützwohl, 2008;Ward & Voracek, 2004). Therefore, women seem to be responsible for the presence of this sex difference by responding with incredibly high levels of distress to emotional infidelity and less distress to sexual infidelity as compared to their male counterparts.…”

“…Looking at degree of distress across all four emotions, women were significantly more distressed by both emotional and sexual infidelity in comparison with men. Because only ordinal effects were found, Penke & Asendorpf (2008) said the evolutionary theory could be supported but not confirmed.…”

“…Because "research that limits the definition of infidelity to sexual intercourse minimizes the devastating effects that other types of sexual involvement and emotional connections can have on relationships" (Blow & Hartnett, 2005, p. A plethora of researchers agree that both infidelity types must be explored in order to gain a more comprehensive understanding of this phenomenon, and many have done so in relation to which infidelity type is more distressing or upsetting: emotional infidelity or sexual infidelity. Across a multitude of studies, a reported sex difference has emerged regarding which infidelity type is viewed as more upsetting, with men seemingly more distressed by sexual infidelity as compared to women, and women experiencing more distress towards emotional infidelity than men (Buss, Larsen, Westen, & Semmelroth, 1992;Buss et al, 1999;Buunk, Angleitner, Oubaid, & Buss, 1996;Cramer, Abraham, Johnson, & Manning-Ryan, 2001;Cramer, Lipinski, Meteer, & Houska, 2008;DeSteno & Salovey, 1996;DeSteno, Bartlett, Braverman, & Salovey, 2002;Edlund, Heider, Scherer, Farc, & Sagarin, 2006;Fernandez, Vera-Villarroel, Sierra, & Zubeidat, 2007;Green & Sabini, 2004;Harris, 2003;Harris & Christenfeld, 1996;Penke & Asendorpf, 2008;Sabini & Green, 2004;Sagarin, Becker, Guadagno, Nicastle, & Millevoi, 2003;Schützwohl, 2008;Ward & Voracek, 2004).…”

“…The proposed evolutionary basis to the sex difference in distress related to emotional and sexual infidelity was recently explored by Penke & Asendorpf (2008). They argued that support must be found for two evolutionary hypotheses, with a total of four sub-hypotheses, in order to say that there is an evolutionary basis to this sex difference.…”

“…Continuous emotion ratings (Penke & Asendorpf, 2008) served as the dependent variable and were used to assess how angry, anxious, jealous, and humiliated each participant felt in response to Buss et al's (1999) six infidelity dilemmas using a fivepoint Likert scale. This measure was adapted from Buss et al's (1999) Relationship Dilemmas Questionnaire and allows participants to state which and to what degree specific emotions are experienced when imagining instances of both emotional and sexual infidelity.…”