Sex Differences in Response to Sexual and Emotional Infidelity Among Spanish and Chilean Students

Abstract

This study evaluates sex differences in response to sexual and emotional infidelity in two Spanish-speaking samples. An extension of previous findings with Anglo, European, and Asian students leads to the prediction that men report being more distressed by sexual than by emotional infidelity, and women report the reverse. Five hundred and eleven students from Spain and Chile respond to a questionnaire consisting of forced-choice-scenarios. Significant sex differences in jealousy as a function of type of infidelity emerges and this is consistent with previous research on jealousy.

Jealousy in a small-scale, natural fertility population: the roles of paternity, investment and love in jealous response

“…Those studies that do look at cross-cultural differences (e.g. Buunk et al, 1996;Buss et al, 1999;Fernandez et al, 2006) point to some trends in variation, but they do not offer a priori predictions grounded in evolutionary theory about jealous behavior. As we move forward with cross-cultural work on this topic it would be helpful to use existing theory about life history trade-offs to generate predictions about the expected intensity of jealous response and the magnitude of any sex difference.…”

A systematic review of romantic jealousy in relationships

“…However, it was not until the mid-90s that there began to emerge a large number of scientific 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 infidelity (emotional or sexual) that activates it (Bendixen, Kennair, & Buss, 2015); the influence of sexual orientation (Alves, Pereira, tieme, & otta, 2006;Dijkstra, Barelds, & groothof, 2013); the specific characteristics of the rival that causes jealousy (Buunk & Dijkstra, 2015;Massar & Buunk, 2016);transcultural 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).…”

Sex Differences in Jealousy: Comparing the Influence of Previous Infidelity Among College Students and Adults

“…As predicted, men were significantly more likely than women to choose the sexual infidelity, and the large majority of women selected the emotional infidelity as more distressing. These results have been replicated many times, predominately with Caucasian U.S. undergraduate samples, but also with African American college students (Abraham, Cramer, Fernandez, & Mahler, 2001) and college-aged participants from the Netherlands, Germany (Buunk, Angleitner, Outbaid, & Buss, 1996), Korea, Japan (Buss et al, 1999), Austria (Voracek, 2001), England, Romania (Brase, Caprar, & Voracek, 2004), Chile, and Spain (Fernandez, Sierra, Zubeidat, & Vera-Villarroel, 2006). However, while the majority of women usually select emotional infidelity, there exists substantial variability within male responses to forced-choice dilemmas.…”