Evolutionary and social cognitive explanations of sex differences in romantic jealousy

Autor(en)

Jeff Ward, Martin Voracek

Abstrakt

Sex differences in romantic jealousy have been widely reported in the recent psychological literature. According to this literature, men are more likely than women to report being more distressed at sexual than emotional infidelity. There are two explanations for this difference: an evolutionary psychological and a social cognitive explanation. According to the evolutionary psychological account, men and women exhibit differences in jealousy because they faced different reproductive challenges during human evolution. According to the social cognitive account, men and women exhibit these differences because they have been socialised to believe that attachment and sex are weighted differently by each gender. In this study, 268 participants completed a questionnaire designed to compare predictions based on these two theories. The results are generally consistent with the evolutionary account. Men are more distressed by sexual infidelity than by emotional infidelity, and this is not accounted for by beliefs about jealousy that they hold about men, women or themselves.

Organisation(en)

Externe Organisation(en)

Australian National University

Journal

Australian Journal of Psychology

Band

56

Seiten

165-171

Anzahl der Seiten

7

ISSN

0004-9530

Publikationsdatum

2004

Peer-reviewed

Ja

ÖFOS 2012

5010 Psychologie

Link zum Portal

https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/de/publications/cd1ebb8e-edeb-4e61-81d2-11691dfafd24