The Difference Blog by Dan4th (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} differenceblog) wrote,@ 2006-10-25 08:05:00 |
|
The jealous type
Christine R. Harris discusses a popular theory of sexual jealousy in her 2003 review; it is widely believed that jealousy was an evolutionary strategy, where sexual jealousy addresses cuckoldry and emotional jealousy is meant to prevent resource loss. Therefore, it is thought that men demonstrate more sexual jealousy than women, and women more emotional jealousy than men. However, Harris doesn't believe that the experimental data confirm this theory. Buss and Haselton (2005), on the other hand, claim that at least 13 hypothesized sex differences in jealousy have been experimentally confirmed.
A look at some of the experimental research suggests that the form of the questions may be introducing bias. Shackelford et al. (2002) presented forced-choice propositions to 256 participants, and found that men were more likely to leave their partner over sexual infidelity, whereas women were more likely to leave over emotional infidelity. Dijkstra and Buunk (2002) reported finding that men were more threatened by rivals who were higher in social status or physical dominance, whereas women were more threatened by rivals who were physically attractive. Criticisms of the forced-choice experimental model are offered by DeSteno et al (2002). Sagarin et al. (2003) suggest that infidelity experience and sexual orientation of the infidelity may be moderating factors in jealousy.
I'm actually a fairly jealous person, I think. People find that surprising, because I live a polyamorous (non-mongamous) lifestyle. Maybe Sagarin et al are right; I've been a cheater more than once. Maybe I don't understand the depth of emotion that other people experience during a jealous episode. I think I do tend more towards emotional jealousy than physical jealousy, but I've never dated a man who didn't. However, I can't think of a single instance where both aspects weren't present. The suggestion that sexual orientation of the infidelity reduces jealousy confuses me, but I know I've heard similar lines of reasoning from people's personal lives. This is one of the areas where I feel like I have a lot of experience, and very little understanding.
