Jealousy is a strong burning emotion filled with lots of nuances.
The thing is, when it comes to jealousy there is one place where straight men stand alone.
Evolutionary psychology is kind of weird.
It's a bunch of highly educated scientists looking at modern humans and applying Darwin's
evolutionary principles to behaviors they observe.
While there IS research involved, it's kind of like educated guessing.
We can't go back in time and see exactly what prompted the adaptation that resulted in jealousy,
but evolutionary psychologists can test how it works now and guess[1]!
For the people who've never experienced jealousy -- to which I personally say, "what?!"
-- jealousy has its roots in envy, suspicion, mistrust, anxiety and protective possession.
It's usually attributed to relationships, and feels like a burning all encompassing
emotive mess.
A hot friggin' mess[2][3].
Evolutionary psychologists say this feeling has been part of humanity for a million years,
evolving when humans were still living solely in Africa.
Males were constantly guarding the social group and providing food while the females
were maintaining social structure and raising the offspring.
According to their hypothesis, male jealousy evolved to ensure they weren't providing resources
to mates who weren't prioritizing their genes -- i.e. females who were thirsty for their
sidepiece[4].
On the other hand female jealousy, though originating from the same inner structures,
manifested as anxiety over emotional betrayal because her mate might split the hunting spoils
with HIS sidepiece!
That meant fewer resources for her and the offspring.
Jealousy burns hotly in both men and women, but the cause is slightly different.
It all sounds very… tweet-drama like, and yet, studies over the years have confirmed
male and female jealousy do work in this way!
Now a new study in the Archives of Sexual Behavior, the largest ever completed, claims
they've confirmed yet again how jealousy works.
In this giant study of 64,000 Americans[5],[6], they found that when it comes to sexual infidelity,
straight men are the most heated.
Heterosexual men cannot abide when their partner has physical relations with another.
That being said, straight women, gay, lesbian, and bisexual men AND women were ALL more concerned
by emotional infidelity[7] -- or the idea that their partner might love someone else.
The lead researcher wanted to learn what the largest triggers of jealousy might be, and
for whom those triggers are strongest; and it turns out only heterosexual men are NOT
worried about their partner falling in love with another person.
Of course, it also depends on how you ask participants the questions in a study like
this.
An older study out of Northeastern[8] found when presented with seven different types
of infidelity, rather than simply emotional or physical, the differences between the sexes
(at least) shrank.
What about you?
What would send you into a jealous rage?