What
makes you jealous? That depends on whether you're a man or woman...or so researchers
have long thought.
Traditionally,
theories of evolutionary psychology assert that a man should care more about the
physical act of a partner's infidelity than the emotional aspect, because raising
and protecting another man's child does not perpetuate his own genes. Women, on
the other hand, are believed to be more upset by emotional betrayal, as their
evolutionary interests are better served when their mate is around to help raise
the children. But Christine R. Harris, Ph.D., a psychology professor at the University
of California, San Diego, challenged the theories in three related studies, all
published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
In
the first study, Harris measured the blood pressure and heart rate of 43 women
and 36 men as they imagined scenarios of their mates committing either sexual
or emotional infidelity. She found that men showed a greater physical reaction
to sexual infidelity, while women reacted similarly to both scenarios--with a
slight tendency to react more like the men to the sexual infidelity scenario.
Wondering
whether the men were simply more aroused by images in the sexual scenario, Harris
removed the infidelity aspect and measured men's responses to imagined scenarios,
in which they had sex and also fell in love with their partners. In each case,
men responded more to the sexual images--confirming Harris' suspicions. A similar
follow-up study of women found that 80% believed emotional fidelity would bother
them more; however, their physical responses to both scenarios were the same.
Surprisingly, those women with experience in committed relationships showed a
significantly greater reaction to the sexual infidelity scenario than the emotional
one.
"The
results raise serious doubts about the veracity of the claim that men are innately
wired to be upset over sexual infidelity, and that women are innately more concerned
with emotional infidelity," Harris said. Instead, her findings suggest that
regardless of gender, our individual experiences play a major role in determining
our desires and reactions.
By:
Oliver Turner Originally published by Psychology Today:Nov/Dec 2000
