Jealousy Quotes and Sayings on love

HYDERABAD, India - July 15, 2015 - PRLog -- ROMANTIC JEALOUSY IN EARLY

ADULTHOOD AND IN LATER LIFE

Todd K. Shackelford

Florida Atlantic University

Martin Voracek

University of Vienna, Austria

David P. Schmitt

Bradley University

David M. Buss

University of Texas at Austin

Viviana A. Weekes-Shackelford

Florida Atlantic University

Richard L. Michalski

Hollins University

Young men are more distressed by a partner’s sexual infidelity, whereas

young women are more distressed by a partner’s emotional infidelity. The

present research investigated (a) whether the sex difference in jealousy

replicates in an older sample, and (b) whether younger people differ from

older people in their selection of the more distressing infidelity scenario. We

presented forced-choice dilemmas to 202 older people (mean age = 67 years)

and to 234 younger people (mean age = 20 years). The sex difference replicated

in the older sample. In addition, older women were less likely than

younger women to select a partner’s emotional infidelity as more distressing

than a partner’s sexual infidelity. Discussion offers directions for future

work on sex differences and age differences in jealousy.

KEY WORDS: Age differences; Evolutionary psychology; Romantic jealousy;

Sex differences

284 Human Nature, Vol. 15, No. 3, 2004

Romantic jealousy is a key emotion experienced by both men and women

(e.g., Bringle and Buunk 1991; Salovey and Rothman 1989; Shackelford,

LeBlanc, and Drass 2000; and see Buss 2000 for a review of research).

Empirical work over the past decade documents that both men and women

report that they would experience high levels of upset by a long-term

partner’s real or imagined infidelity. This research also documents a sex

difference in the psychological weighting of the aspects or content of a

partner’s infidelity: Men report greater distress than do women in response

to a partner’s sexual infidelity (for example, having sexual intercourse

with someone else), and women report greater distress than do

men in response to a partner’s emotional infidelity (for example, falling

in love with someone else). In addition, when a partner is imagined or

discovered to be involved in an affair that is both sexual and emotional in

nature, men report greater distress in response to the sexual aspect of the

infidelity, whereas women report greater distress in response to the emotional

aspect of the infidelity. This sex difference in the nature of jealousy

has been found repeatedly by different investigators—psychologically,

physiologically, and cross-culturally (Buss et al. 1992; DeSteno et al.

2002; Geary et al. 1995; Harris 2000; Pietrzak et al. 2002; Shackelford,

Buss, and Bennett 2002; Wiederman and Kendall 1999).

The sex difference in jealousy was first hypothesized by evolutionary

psychologists. Evolutionary psychologists hypothesized two decades ago

that men and women would differ psychologically in the weighting given

to cues that trigger jealousy (Daly, Wilson, and Weghorst 1982; Symons

1979). Both sexes, of course, are distressed by both forms of infidelity,

and the evolutionary hypothesis suggests that they should be, given their

correlated nature in everyday life and the fact that both forms would have

signaled the loss of important reproductive resources in ancestral environments

(Buss et al. 1992). Nonetheless, the hypothesized sex difference

is anchored in sexual asymmetries that men and women recurrently faced.

Because fertilization occurs internally within women, a man’s partner’s

sexual infidelity threatened his paternity certainty. On the other hand, from

a woman’s perspective, a partner’s emotional involvement with other women

was hypothesized to predict the long-term loss of her partner’s time, resources,

and investments, all of which could get diverted to the rival woman

and her children. Thus, the evolved psychological design of male and female

romantic jealousy was hypothesized to differ for the sexes, with

women giving relatively greater weight to signals of emotional infidelity

and men giving relatively greater weight to signals of sexual infidelity.

The empirical evidence documents a sex difference in the psychological

weighting of the cues that trigger jealousy. As Voracek (2001) points

Romantic Jealousy 285

out, however, every study conducted to assess this sex difference has relied

on samples of young men and young women. The implicit assumption

of past research, according to Voracek, is that the sex difference in

jealousy is generalizable to older adults, but this assumption has not been

subjected to empirical scrutiny. Part of the impetus for Voracek’s research

was to identify whether the sex difference was moderated by participant

age. Age is a proxy for other, developmentally relevant variables, such as

experience in long-term romantic relationships and the experiences of

one’s own or a partner’s infidelities (Voracek 2001).

Voracek’s (2001) research included a community sample of Austrian

participants 18 years or older. Participants completed an infidelity dilemma

used in past research and pioneered by Buss and colleagues (1992).

In this dilemma, the participant is asked to think of a serious romantic

relationship in which he or she is currently involved, has been involved,

or would like to be involved. The participant is asked to imagine that the

person with whom he or she is involved became interested in someone

else.
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