A study of bisexual individuals published April 9 in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships supports an emerging theory of the source of sex differences in jealousy.
The study of 134 people found that bisexual men dating women were more concerned with sexual infidelity than bisexual men dating men, bisexual women dating women, and bisexual women dating men. The latter three groups all reported that emotional infidelity created a stronger feelings of jealousy than sexual infidelity.
“This finding makes sense according to the sex difference in jealousy theory,” Cory R. Scherer of Penn State and her colleagues explained in their study. “This perspective argues that bisexual men dating women would be more concerned with the sexual aspects of the jealousy because they are the only group that is concerned with paternal uncertainty.”
“Bisexual men dating men and bisexual women dating women would have no reproductive outcomes and bisexual women dating men would always know that their offspring is their own,” they noted.
The study offered support for the reproductive threat-based model, an alternative to the hypothesis of jealousy in relationships proposed by evolutionary psychologists.
A number of studies have uncovered that men are more concerned about sexual infidelity than women on average. Women, on the other hand, tend to be more concerned with emotional infidelity than men. But the reason for this sex difference in jealous remains hotly contested.
While many theories seek to explain the sex difference in evolutionary terms, cultural aspects likely contribute as well.
“Societal expectations may play a role in how people behave toward infidelity,” Scherer and her colleagues conceded. “For men in relationships with women, it might be expected that they are more upset about the sexual aspects of the infidelity because that is what society expects of them. Likewise, men dating men might not be distressed by the sexual aspects of the infidelity because it is a societal norm to value sexual monogamy less than men dating women.”
The study was co-authored by Emily G. Akers of Penn State and Krysta L. Kolbe of the University of Rochester.