Sexual and romantic jealousy in heterosexual and homosexual adults.
Several theorists have claimed that men are innately more upset by a mate's sexual infidelity and women are more upset by a mate's emotional infidelity because the sexes faced different adaptive problems (for men, cuckoldry; for women, losing a mate's resources). The present work examined this theory of jealousy as a specific innate module in 196 adult men and women of homosexual and heterosexual orientations. As in previous work, heterosexuals' responses to a forced-choice question about hypothetical infidelity yielded a gender difference. However no gender differences were found when participants recalled personal experiences with a mate's actual infidelity. Men and women, regardless of sexual orientation, on average focused more on a mate's emotional infidelity than on a mate's sexual infidelity. Responses to hypothetical infidelity were uncorrelated with reactions to actual infidelity. This finding casts doubt on the validity of the hypothetical measures used in previous research.
Harris
Christine R
CR
San Diego Department of Psychology, University of California, La Jolla 92093-0109, USA. charris@psy.ucsd.edu
D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D020010:Heterosexuality; D006716:Homosexuality; D006801:Humans; D007578:Jealousy; D008149:Love; D008297:Male; D012725:Sexual Behavior / Q000523:psychology*