Sexual jealousy

Evolutionary psychologists have suggested that there is a gender difference in sexual jealousy, driven by men and women's different reproductive biology. The theory proposes that a man perceives a threat to his relationship's future because he could be fooled into raising children that are not his own. In contrast, a woman risks losing to another the relationship and all the benefits that entails. Research has shown that men are impacted more by sexual infidelity, while women are more impacted by emotional infidelity. An alternative explanation is from a social-cognitive perspective. Typically, men place importance on their masculinity and sexual dominance. When the male's partner commits sexual infidelity, these two components of his ego become severely threatened. Women are more emotionally invested in a relationship, and therefore experience a threat to their self-perception when a partner commits infidelity, more concerned with risk to the emotional content than the sexual. ==Gender-specific behaviors==

Female '' by Paul Gauguin. Based on a real-life episode during Gauguin's stay on Tahiti, the painting shows two Tahitian women. Psychologists have found that males react very strongly to sexual infidelity, whereas females are more likely to forgive a one-time sexual adventure if it does not threaten the male parental investment. Therefore, jealousy is likely to be evoked in females if they feel that their partner may leave them for another woman; this has been shown to be more likely to occur if the male commits emotional infidelity. Emotional jealousy Many studies have shown that females tend to place a stronger emphasis on the emotional aspect of infidelity over the sexual aspect; it is this emotional infidelity that becomes the focus of female sexual jealousy. The most direct evidence for female's focus on emotional jealousy comes from Buss et al. (1992) Male Male sexual jealousy functions to defend paternity confidence, and is likely to have evolved through natural selection to prevent cuckoldry — a threat to males since they risk expending resources to support the biological offspring of others. It can take several forms in behaviour: aggression and violence, and possessiveness or controlling behaviour towards their mate. In some cases, sexual jealousy can lead to uxoricide. Threats to a relationship can arise from other sources too, such as the presence of rivals, cues to infidelity, and partner dissatisfaction with the relationship. Morbid jealousy is also concurrent with male sexual jealousy == Expression ==

Expression in females Aggression While most empirical research suggests that males are more likely to act aggressively in response to sexual jealousy, some studies have shown that females may also display aggression and violence. Women have been found to report that their hypothetical sexual jealousy would manifest itself as anger and physical aggression towards the man. It has been suggested that this is because women are more empathetic towards the "victim", triggering strong aggression towards the unfaithful man. However, it is not known if these hypothetical reports would become actions in real life situations. On the other hand, research shows that women are as likely to be violent in intimate partnerships as men, in contrast to society at large. Expression in males Mate guarding behaviour One form of male sexual jealousy is mate guarding. This tactic is used to prevent partner infidelity and thus may be used when there are perceived threats in the environment. It results in several behaviours, and researchers have documented up to 19 tactics used. This includes (but is not exclusive to): • Violence (or at least hostility) directed towards competitors, • Taking up all of the mate's time so that they have no time to meet other potential mates, • Emotionally manipulating their mate, • Increase their possession signals with jewelry, clothing, cars, etc., • Enhancing their appearance (e.g. fixing their hair, clothing, etc.). Attachment style According to attachment theory, the quality of a child's interactions with caregivers during times of need shape their future interactions; this includes later relationships. Research has shown that insecure-avoidant individuals tend to report more sexual jealousy than those who are securely attached. This may be due to the fact that, in comparison to securely attached individuals, those who are insecurely attached tend to experience lower levels of trust, intimacy and stability in their romantic relationships. Evidence suggests that people who experience low self-esteem are much more afraid that their partner is dissatisfied and being unfaithful, which again increases the likelihood that they will experience sexual jealousy. Sex drive Sex drive, also known as libido, is the physiological need for sexual activity. Sex drive has been found to be a significant predictor of higher sexual jealousy in both men and women; those who had a higher sex drive showed greater distress at the idea of their partner committing sexual infidelity. Furthermore, individuals in committed relationships tend to experience higher levels of jealousy than individuals in less committed relationships. == Explanations ==

Researchers have proposed a number of theories to explain sexual jealousy in both males and females. In addition, some of these explanations can be used to explain the sex differences in sexual jealousy and why there may be differences in the degree to which people experience jealousy. This explanation is known as jealousy as a specific innate module, "JSIM". According to this perspective, sexual jealousy should be activated by threats to the relationship; in particular, threats of sexual infidelity by the female and threats that the male may share his resources (money, protection, or time) with another woman. For males, their biggest concern when they commit to a relationship is ensuring that any offspring produced is biologically theirs, therefore, sexual infidelity is a huge threat to them as there is then a chance that they are not the genetic parent. If a male raises a child that is not genetically his own, he has effectively wasted his resources raising another man's child who will not pass on any of his genes. The evolutionary psychology perspective has been supported by a study conducted by David Buss. He observed that male sexual jealousy is triggered by sexual infidelity, whereas female sexual jealousy is triggered by emotional infidelity. The study concluded that sexual jealousy may be an adaptive function that is triggered in order to retain access to a valuable mate. • Men will devote more resources to mate retention when their partner is younger than them than men whose partner is older than them. This hypothesis rests on the evolutionary principle of mate value. Younger women are likely to have more mate value because they are more fertile. Therefore, it is predicted that men are likely to engage in mate retention behaviours more often when their partner is younger rather than older than them. • Again based on the principle of mate value is the prediction that men will devote more resources to mate retention when their partner is perceived to be more physically attractive than when their partner is perceived to be less physically attractive. Females who are physically attractive have a higher mate value than those who are less physically attractive. • Women will allocate more resources to mate retention when their partner has a wealth of resources than women whose partners have few resources. This hypothesis also rests on the mate value principle. Men who have more resources and wealth have a higher mate value than those who do not. • If a man perceives his partner as having a higher mate value than him, then he is more likely to engage in efforts towards mate retention than men who perceive their partners as having a lower or equal mate value than them. This hypothesis rests on perceived mate value. If a male's partner has a higher mate value than him, she is more likely to be able to attract other men who may be of a similar mate value to her. As such, the male is at a greater risk of losing her to another man with a higher mate value. • Individuals who suspect their partners are being unfaithful are more likely to devote effort towards mate retention than those who do not suspect their partners are being unfaithful. This hypothesis relies on the perceived probability of infidelity. Men risk being cuckolded into raising children that are not genetically theirs, and women risk losing their mate's resources and time. Their research provided evidence to support all above hypotheses except for hypothesis 5; this effect was unique to men only. This suggests that a woman who suspects her male partner of being unfaithful is not necessarily more likely to devote more effort to retaining them: It proposes that these gender differences in feelings of sexual jealousy stem from beliefs as opposed to being evolved traits.) suggests that women have a belief that men can have sexual relations without emotionally committing themselves. Women also believe that for men to have emotional commitment, sex is a prerequisite. Therefore, if men and women place importance on different aspects of relationship, this explains why they may also be upset by different types of sexual jealousy differently. The social-cognitive perspective also proposes the transactional model of jealousy, which can be used to explain why there may be differences in the degree to which individuals experience sexual jealousy within genders, as well as between genders. This model examines how three variables – (1) arousability, (2) commitment and, (3) insecurity – moderate jealousy. • Individual differences in sexual jealousy are determined by the difference in levels of physiological arousal: individuals who are easily aroused have more intense jealous reactions than those with lower physiological arousal • Commitment refers to the degree of dedication a person has in the relationship: the more committed a person is to a relationship, the greater the threat of loss, which leads to greater feelings of jealousy • Insecurity refers to the perceived level of commitment of the partner: if we perceive our partner to be un-involved or disinterested in the relationship, we feel more insecure. The degree to which these factors are experienced together determine the intensity of sexual jealousy felt by an individual. == Culture ==

Sexual jealousy is cross-culturally universal in industrialised countries and affects both men and women. It is said to be prevalent in males who are from patriarchal cultures (where heritability runs through the male side). Evocation There are cross-cultural differences in behaviours that evoke sexual jealousy. For example, in Denmark very low sexual jealousy rates are determined by the very low 10% disapproval of extra-marital sex. On the other hand, individuals in the American Midwest show high feelings of sexual jealousy which corresponds to the 90% disapproval of extra-marital sex. American men also feel more sexual jealousy compared to German men when asked which would cause them more distress: i) a partner having formed a strong emotional attachment with another person or ii) a partner having passionate sexual intercourse with another person. Scenario i) measured emotional jealousy and scenario ii) measured sexual jealousy. The American men reported 33% greater sexual and emotional jealousy compared to German men. Greater sexual jealousy seen in American men may be because in American culture, love, sex, family relationships and marriage are strongly connected. So when partners entangle with others, loss of love and relationship and therefore sexual jealousy, are all likely to be felt. Additionally, in Western culture, women are more likely than men to trigger sexual jealousy. Inducing sexual jealousy is to increase their partner's attention towards them and counteract sexual and emotional jealousy. However, Western culture now is mainly monogamous which is very different from the environments in which the majority of evolution thus far has occurred. In contemporary India, sexual jealousy is a primary cause of violence towards women compared to other causes. In an Indian sample, approximately fifty-one per cent of the violence towards women was due to sexual jealousy. In history, between 1880 and 1925, there was a large number of suicides amongst Indian immigrants on plantations in Fiji that reports attributed to sexual jealousy. Sexual jealousy was high amongst these immigrants due to the disproportionate ratio of sexes: a high number of men to a low number of women. In suicide reports, sexual jealousy was described as a "racial trait" belonging to Indian men and was evoked when European men slept with Indian women during an era of European colonization of India. == Explanations for cross-cultural differences ==

Evolutionary psychology model The differences in feelings of jealousy across cultures support the evolutionary psychological model. Different weights are given to triggers of sexual jealousy depending on the culture. In liberal cultures, male mating effort is based on the number of women the male has copulated with. These men therefore invest less time in each woman and thus exhibit less sexual jealousy. In polygamous societies, men feel greater sexual jealousy when there is low paternity certainty. Additionally, there is greater likelihood of paternity loss and paternity uncertainty when there is a lack of contraceptives. This provides an explanation for why industrialised countries tend to show lower sexual jealousy compared to pre-industrialised countries. ==See also==