Gender and jealousy: Stories of infidelity

Abstract

In three studies (total N = 337) we tested an evolutionary prediction using a scenario method in which participants read stories about their partners' infidelity and responded with their predicted emotional reaction on Likert scales. In Study 1, participants read that their partners went to a brothel. Contrary to evolutionary expectations, females reported being more hurt and angry than did males. Study 2 described a sexual or emotional encounter. Again, contrary to the crossover interaction predicted by evolutionists, both genders were upset more by the sexual than the emotional fling. Study 3 was about the end of an affair with a married person. As evolutionary theory might expect, males were less upset when their partners returned to their husbands than were females when their partners returned to their wives, but these main effects did not interact with the use of birth control and the opportunity to profit from cuckoldry.