MEN, WOMEN AND THE GREEN EYE’D MONSTER New research reveals that men and women respond similarly on jealousy measures related to infidelity http://www.nupr.neu.edu/10-02/jealousy.html CONTACT: Christine Phelan: 617-373-5455
DOWNLOAD FULL REPORT http://www.nupr.neu.edu/10-02/jealousy.PDF (10-8-02) BOSTON, Mass. – When it comes to jealousy, men and women may be from the same planet after all.
New research from psychology professor David DeSteno from Northeastern University debunks the myth of a gender-determined reaction to sexual and emotional infidelity. Contrary to previous studies, he found that both men and women react most dramatically to a partner's sexual rather than emotional philandering. And while a partner's unfaithful emotional bonds with someone outside the relationship are unduly stressful, both men and women exhibit the strongest adverse reactions to sexual rather than emotional connections.
Jealous reactions were once thought to be determined by evolutionary instincts. Men were said to react more strongly to being cuckolded while women found partners who strayed emotionally to be more of a threat to resources benefiting themselves and their children. Before DeSteno’s research, most jealousy studies on this issue involved “forced choice,” scenarios that prompted participants to choose one more distressing event over another. DeSteno and his colleagues believed that this method of assessment created biased results. Differences in gender only emerge, they found, when participants are forced to consider the infidelity events in opposition to one another. In short, it’s how participants are asked the questions, not an innate psychological mechanism shaped by evolution....ect http://www.nupr.neu.edu/10-02/jealousy.html --- Sent from UnionMail Service [http://mail.union.org.za]