Sex differences in jealousy: a meta-analytic examination

Sagarin, Brad J.; Martin, Amy L.; Coutinho, Savia A.; Edlund, John E.; Patel, Lily; Skowronski, John J.; Zengel, Bettina

doi:10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2012.02.006

Cited by 141 publications

(135 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…This approach has been criticised by authors who have presented a compelling rationale for the employment of statistical analyses relating to sex differences in jealousy that focus exclusively on the interaction (cf. Sagarin 2005;Edlund and Sagarin 2009;Sagarin et al 2012). The current study also prides itself on the efforts employed to render the types of infidelity (sexual and emotional) conveyed by the messages mutually exclusive in line with previous studies (cf.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 78%

“…Evolutionary psychologists have for many years documented significant differences between the sexes in how jealousy manifests (Buss et al 1992(Buss et al , 1999Sagarin et al 2012). The current study attempted to support such findings by devising a novel, contemporary, ecologically valid methodological approach whereby participants were presented with imagined sent or received messages discovered on a partner's Facebook account depicting either sexual or emotional contact between their partner or significant other (SO) and a 'rival' or third party.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

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Jealousy Levels in Response to Infidelity-Revealing Facebook Messages Depend on Sex, Type of Message and Message Composer: Support for the Evolutionary Psychological Perspective

Dünn

Billett

2017

Evolutionary Psychological Science

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Sex differences in how and to what extent jealousy manifests have long been documented by evolutionary psychologists with males showing more pronounced responses to sexual infidelity and females to emotional infidelity. With modern technology facilitating the opportunity for extra-pair relations and the means by which inclinations towards infidelity can be monitored, social media is a fertile ground to test hypotheses derived from evolutionarily informed theories. The current study presented male (n = 21) and female (n = 23) undergraduate participants with realistic, unambiguously sexual and emotional messages both sent and received that had been discovered (imagined) on their partner's Facebook messenger. Distress scores in response to these messages were measured on a scale of 0-10. Broad support for the evolutionary interpretation of sex differences in jealousy was found with more pronounced sexual jealousy in males, and emotional jealousy in females compared to males being evident. Similarly, salient sex differences were observed highlighting the importance of the composer of the infidelity-revealing message. For example, in females, higher distress was found resulting from the discovery of received (female rival) when compared to sent (male partner) messages, and received messages across sex (females higher). The results are discussed in relation to previous findings and in the context of growing concern relating to relationship dissolution and partner-initiated domestic violence.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 78%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Jealousy Levels in Response to Infidelity-Revealing Facebook Messages Depend on Sex, Type of Message and Message Composer: Support for the Evolutionary Psychological Perspective

Dünn

Billett

2017

Evolutionary Psychological Science

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“…Some studies have reported mean values in line with the suggested sex differences for the relationship between jealousy types, although no statistical analysis of this effect was performed (Geary et al, 1995(Geary et al, , 2001Shackelford et al, 2000). Taken together, these studies show a fairly consistent picture regarding how the relationship between jealousy types is distributed in men and women, and a recent meta-analysis supports this idea (Sagarin et al, 2012). We have replicated these previous findings and performed analyses of the suggested sex difference in a sample large enough to reveal statistically robust results.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 89%

Sex Differences in Jealousy: A Population-Based Twin Study in Sweden

et al. 2013

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According to the theory of evolved sex differences in jealousy, the challenge for women to ensure paternal investment increased their jealousy response to emotional infidelity, whereas paternal uncertainty exerted selective pressures that shaped men to become more distressed by sexual infidelity. Several studies have investigated whether the effect of these sexually dimorphic selection pressures can be detected in contemporary human populations, with conflicting results. To date, no genetically informed studies of sex differences in jealousy have been conducted. We used data from the Screening Across the Lifespan of Twins Younger (SALTY) sample, containing information concerning self-rated jealousy from 3,197 complete twin pairs collected by the Swedish Twin Registry. Intra-class correlations and structural equation models were used to assess the genetic influence on jealousy and to investigate sex differences at genetic level. We saw a highly significant sex effect on the relationship between infidelity types, indicating that men, relative to women, reported greater jealousy in response to sexual infidelity than in response to emotional infidelity. The twin models revealed significant heritabilities for both sexual (32%) and emotional (26%) jealousy. The heritabilities were of a similar magnitude in both sexes, and no qualitative sex differences could be detected. We show for the first time that variance in jealousy is to some extent explained by genetic factors. Even though our results from the mean value analyses are in line with the theory of evolved sex differences in jealousy, we could not identify any sex differences on a genetic level.

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“…One may question whether the gender difference in jealousy is an artefact of the use of the forced-choice method in response to the hypothetical scenarios. However, Sagarin et al [53] pointed out that the clearest finding in their meta-analysis was the existence of a gender difference in responses to hypothetical infidelity scenarios. Consequently we would like to underscore the importance of a multidimensional approach to conceptualizing the emotional, cognitive, and behavioural complexity of romantic jealousy and propose further investigations of the correlates related to the plasticity in jealousy that derives from the fundamental human need to form attachments.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gender differences in romantic jealousy and attachment styles

Güçlü

Şenormancı

et al. 2017

Psychiatry and Clinical Psychopharmacology

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Objective: We examined the gender differences and attachment styles with regard to the phenomenology of jealousy among married individuals. Method: The study included 86 married couples who presented to the Marriage Counselling Centre at the Bakırköy Research and Training Hospital for Psychiatry, Neurology, and Neurosurgery. Subjects were evaluated in terms of sociodemographic data, the Romantic Jealousy Questionnaire, and the Adult Attachment Style Scale. Results: In our population, 79% of males and 66% of females defined themselves as jealous. Females had higher emotional and cognitive scores than male participants. Females had higher scores on the negative effects of jealousy. Female commitment scores were higher than those of males. Ambivalent attachment was positively correlated with physical, emotional, and behavioural responses to jealousy and inadequacy as a reason for jealousy. Conclusions: We suggest that a multidimensional approach permits to identify and guide responses to the challenge of romantic jealousy. ARTICLE HISTORY

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Sex differences in jealousy: a meta-analytic examination

Cited by 141 publications

References 52 publications

Jealousy Levels in Response to Infidelity-Revealing Facebook Messages Depend on Sex, Type of Message and Message Composer: Support for the Evolutionary Psychological Perspective

Jealousy Levels in Response to Infidelity-Revealing Facebook Messages Depend on Sex, Type of Message and Message Composer: Support for the Evolutionary Psychological Perspective

Sex Differences in Jealousy: A Population-Based Twin Study in Sweden

Gender differences in romantic jealousy and attachment styles

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