In a classic 1992 study, Buss, Larson, Westen, and Semmelroth reported that men were more distressed by the sexual infidelity of a partner and women were more distressed by a partner's emotional infidelity. Buss, et al. suggested that men are concerned about uncertainty of paternity, that is, the possibility of raising another man's child while believing that the child is his own. However, data can be explained in terms of men's greater preference for short-term sexual strategies. This research yielded support for the latter explanation for the samples in this present research.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
BeckJ. G.BozmanA. W.QualtroughT. (1991) The experience of sexual desire: Psychological correlates in a college sample. The Journal of Sex Research, 28, 443–456.
2.
BussD. M. (1994) The evolution of desire: Strategies of human mating. New York: Basic Books.
3.
BussD. M.LarsenR. J.WestenD. (1996) Sex differences in jealousy: Not gone, not forgotten, and not explained by alternative hypotheses. Psychological Science, 7, 373–375.
4.
BussD. M.LarsenR. J.WestenD.SemmelrothJ. (1992) Sex differences in jealousy: Evolution, physiology, and psychology. Psychological Science, 3, 251–255.
5.
BussD. M.SchmittD. P. (1993) Sexual strategies theory: An evolutionary perspective on human mating. Psychological Review, 100, 204–232.
6.
BussD. M.ShackelfordT. K.KirkpatrickL. A.ChoeJ. C.LimH. K.HasegawaM.HasegawaT.BennettK. (1999) Jealousy and the nature of beliefs about infidelity: Tests of competing hypotheses about sex differences in the United States, Korea, and Japan. Personal Relationships, 6, 125–150.
7.
BuunkB. P.AngleitnerA.OubaidV.BussD. M. (1996) Sex differences in jealousy in evolutionary and cultural perspective: Tests from the Netherlands, Germany, and the United States. Psychological Science, 7, 359–363.
8.
ClarkR. D.HatfieldE. (1989) Gender differences in receptivity to sexual offers. Journal of Psychological and Human Sexuality, 2, 39–55.
9.
DalyM.WilsonM.WeghorstS. J. (1982) Male sexual jealousy. Ethology and Sociobiology, 3, 11–27.
10.
DeStenoD. A.SaloveyP. (1996a) Evolutionary origins of sex differences in jealousy? Questioning the “fitness” of the model. Psychological Science, 7, 367–372.
11.
DeStenoD. A.SaloveyP. (1996b) Genes, jealousy, and the replication of misspecified models. Psychological Science, 7, 376–377.
12.
GearyD. C.RumseyM.Bow-ThomasC. C.HoardM. K. (1995) Sexual jealousy as a facilitative trait: Evidence from the pattern of sex differences in adults from China to the United States. Ethology and Sociobiology, 16, 355–383.
13.
GreilingH.BussD. M. (2000) Women's sexual strategies: The hidden dimension of extra-pair mating. Personality and Individual Differences, 28, 929–963.
14.
GuttentagM.SecordP. F. (1983) Too many women? The sex ratio question. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
HarrisC. R.ChristenfeldN. (1996b) Jealous and rational responses to infidelity across gender and culture. Psychological Science, 7, 378–379.
17.
HoustonL. N. (1981) Romanticism and eroticism among Black and White college students. Adolescence, 16, 263–272.
18.
JonesJ. C.BarlowD. H. (1990) Self-reported frequency of sexual urges, fantasies, and masturbatory fantasies in heterosexual males and females. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 19, 269–279.
19.
KnothR.BoydK.SingerB. (1988) Empirical tests of sexual selection theory: Predictions of sex differences in onset, intensity, and time course of sexual arousal. The Journal of Sex Research, 24, 73–89.
20.
MathesE. W.KingC. A.MillerJ. K. (1998) The effect of age on sex differences in promiscuity: A test of the evolutionary theory of sexual behavior. Paper presented at the 70th Annual Meeting of the Midwestern Psychological Association, Chicago, IL.
21.
SymonsD. (1979) The evolution of human sexuality. New York: Oxford Univer. Press.
22.
TriversR. (1972) Parental investment and sexual selection. In CampbellB. (Ed.), Sexual selection and the descent of man. Chicago, IL: Aldine-Atherton. Pp. 136–179.
23.
WiedermanM. W.AllgeierE. R. (1993) Gender differences in sexual jealousy: Adaptionist or social learning explanation?Ethology and Sociobiology, 14, 115–140.
