Sexual Jealousy And Infidelity

Evolutionary psychologists found evidence more than three decades ago for sex differences in jealousy towards infidelity (Burchell, & Ward, 2011). An abundance of studies have been conducted to increase our understanding of these sex differences, and a multitude of theories have been created to explain them (Levy, Kelly, & Jack, 2006; Sagarin & Guadagno, 2004; Tagler & Gentry, 2011; Walum et al., 2013). Jealousy towards infidelity is a specific type of jealousy which is only apparent in species that reproduce through internal fertilisation (Buss, Larsen, Westen & Semmelroth, 1992). There are two types of jealousy, including sexual jealousy and emotional jealousy. Sexual jealousy has been defined as jealousy elicited by a threat of sexual infidelity, which refers to any form of physical unfaithfulness that does not involve feelings (Levy, Kelly, & Jack, 2006). Whereas emotional jealousy is elicited from the threat of emotional infidelity, that is any form of unfaithfulness that involves a romantic connection and doesn’t necessarily entail the physical act of cheating (Levy, Kelly, & Jack, 2006).
It is widely believed that men and women respond differently to infidelity in the way they think and act (Buss, Larsen, Westen & Semmelroth, 1992; Takahashi et al., 2006; Walum et al., 2013). Past research has found that women tend to report more
It states that due to female fertilisation, males are threatened by a reduction in reproductive success and females are threatened by resource withdrawal (Levy, Kelly, & Jack, 2006; Walum et al., 2013). Binary-choice measures use simultaneous presentation which can alter how well a person is able to approximate each scenario. However, when using a continuous measure the individuals assess one situation at a time and are therefore more likely to react accordingly when comparisons between the two are not necessary (DeSteno et al.,