Evolutionary Psychology Lecture 8: Jealousy and Mate

Retention.

Thoughts for the day.

“No woman no cry”. Bob Marley.

“He that is not jealous is not in love” St Augustine.

“Hey Joe. Where you goin’ with that gun in your hand? Goin’ down to shoot my old lady. You know I caught her messin’ around with another man”. (“Hey Joe” Billy Roberts, 1966).

“When you’re in love with a beautiful woman, watch your friends” (Dr Hook).

Learning Outcomes.

At the end of this session you should be able to:

1. Discuss the evidence for the adaptive significance of romantic jealousy.

2. Evaluate theoretical predictions

concerning sex differences in jealousy.

Jealousy.

Romantic jealousy has been defined as: "a fear and rage reaction fitted to protect,

maintain, and prolong the intimate

association of love" (Davis 1948).

Jealousy is generated: "when there is a threat to, or an actual loss

of a valued relationship due to an actual or imagined rival for one's partners attention” (DeSteno & Salovey, 1996).

Evolutionary Explanations For Jealousy.

Mate retention is very important for both sexes, so males and females should show jealousy to the same degree.

However, evolutionary psychologists predict that the sexes may differ in terms of the events that activate jealousy, due to the following:

1. Paternity Uncertainty: Males can never be certain that an offspring is theirs. E.g. 9-13% of human children are being unknowingly raised by their non-genetic father (Baker, 1996).

2. Mate Value: Young females are more reproductively valuable, and a few males can monopolise them, so there will always be males seeking to steal mates of other males. Females may also seek extra-pair copulations if they find a superior mate (Buss, 1999).

Costs of Cuckoldry.

Investing resources in another males offspring leads to high costs for an unwitting cuckold:

1. He has lost the considerable efforts he has put into courting the female - time, energy, risk, resources.

2. The time spent courting the unfaithful female could have been better spent finding another.

3. He may unknowingly continue to pour resources into a child who does not carry his genetic material.

We might therefore expect males to be particularly sensitive about their partners possible sexual infidelity.

Psychological Adaptations.

Wilson & Daly (1992) argued that sexual proprietary behaviours such as:

Mate guarding. Male aggression. Spousal Violence.

and certain attitudes such as: Valuing female chastity. Culture-wide concept of adultery as a property

violation. are evolved male solutions to the adaptive problem

of paternity uncertainty.

The Female Dilemma.

Females have faced a slightly different set of adaptive problems.

If their partner commits a sexual infidelity, it has no effect on her parenthood certainty.

However, she and her offspring stand to lose a considerable loss of protection, status, and resources if the male devotes his time to another female and her offspring.

We might therefore expect females to be particularly sensitive to behaviours signalling their partners potential emotional (and of course sexual) infidelity.

The emotion of jealousy is therefore adaptive for both sexes.

But Males Stand To Lose More!

As males stand more to lose than females through sexual infidelity, we would expect the following to be particularly common in males:

1. Increased sensitivity to circumstances in which their partner may have the chance to be unfaithful.

2. The increased likelihood of mate guarding behaviours to reduce possible contact between their partner and other males.

3. Greater willingness to perform actions to keep their partner.

4. Increase of threatening and hostile behaviour to other males.

Is there any evidence for this?

1. Mate Guarding.

Extreme mate guarding (harems, concubines, multiple wives) arises when the chance for resource acquisition and hoarding exist.

Even males with access to a single female will engage in a variety of guarding behaviours:

Chaperoning. Veiling. Purdah (keeping males and females separate). Chastity belts. Genital mutilation. Limiting education and equality. Such cultural actions only occur with women of

reproductive age. They are often conducted by female relatives to increase a girl’s mate value

Real-Life Example.

In an anthropological study of relationships in a Caribbean village, Flinn (1988) found that:

Males whose mates were of reproductive age were more often in their company than males whose mates were at post-reproductive age, or were pregnant.

A woman’s fecundity was proportionally associated with more antagonism in her mate’s interactions with her.

There was greater antagonism amongst mated couples who were not strictly monogamous.

Males who were vying for the attentions of a particular women were more antagonistic than during

other male-male interactions.

2. Mate Retention.

Divorce is very common across all human societies and cultures, e.g. between 50-67% of couples will divorce in America (sexual infidelity being cited as a key cause).

This indicates that mate retention is a significant and difficult adaptive problem.

Buss (1988) tried to isolate the kinds of behaviours that individuals employ to retain a mate.

Sex differences emerged as males were more likely to monopolise her time, display or provide resources and threaten other males.

Women were more likely to use appearance enhancement, and the inducement of jealousy as tactics of mate retention.

Mate Poaching.

Schmitt & Buss (2001) found that around 50% reported attempting mate poaching, while around 85% had been the target of poaching attempts.

Nearly a quarter of males and females admitted that their current relationship was the result of a successful poaching attempt.

What makes a good mate poacher? Schmitt & Buss (2001) found that successful female

poachers are assumed to use enhancement of their appearance, and suggestions of sexual access.

Successful male poachers are assumed to be socially dominant and have access to plentiful resources.

Successful poachers of both sexes are assumed to denigrate the same sex partner by questioning their

commitment and attractiveness.

Retention Behaviour in Context.

Buss & Shackelford (1997) argued that the psychological adaptations underlying mate retention behaviours may be sensitive to 3 contexts:

1. Mate value: Reproductive or parental potential is a key factor. Age and attractiveness (for males), resource acquisition or potential (for females).

2. Perceived mate value discrepancies: In some pair bonds there will be differences in the couples respective mate values.

3. Perceived probability of infidelity: An important cue signalling a failure of mate retention is that of the suspicion of infidelity.

Predictions.

Buss & Shackelford (1997) assessed mate retention behaviours. They predicted that individuals fulfilling the following criteria would devote more time to mate retention:

Men married to younger and more attractive women. Women married to men with many resources, or

excellent prospects. Individuals who suspected that their partner may be

unfaithful. They also predicted that: Males would attempt to retain their mates by

providing resources. Females would attempt to retain their mates by

enhancing their physical appearance.

Results.

1. Men married to younger women and to women they perceived as being more very attractive devoted great efforts to mate retention.

2. Women married to males with plentiful resources also showed more mate retention behaviours.

3. Men (but not women) whose partners they suspected may become unfaithful significantly increased certain retention behaviours.

4. Men were more likely to use resource-based tactics (and aggression) to retain a mate, while women were much more likely to use physical enhancement.

3. Adultery and Culture.

All human societies have some form of ritualised ‘marriage’ arrangement, and all have strict laws dealing with adultery.

In most societies, adultery is defined only as a married woman having an affair with another man.

Adultery is often explicitly treated as a property violation, with the victim being entitled to violent or economic revenge (return of the dowry).

In many countries, and in several states of the USA (up to the 1970’s), murder on the discovery of a wife’s infidelity is not considered a crime.

Until recently, husbands were legally entitled to confine their wives against their will and use force to obtain their conjugal rights.

Psychological Studies of Jealousy. Buss et al., (1992) predicted that males and females

would be differentially concerned about potential sexual and emotional infidelity.

Males >distress to sexual infidelity. Females >distress to emotional infidelity. Participants presented with 2 dilemmas, each

concerning hypothetical sexual or emotional infidelity of their partner.

60% of males reported greater distress to sexual infidelity compared to 17% of females. 83% of females showed greater distress to emotional infidelity.

The findings were confirmed using electrophysiology. Males with experience of a sexual relationship showed

more distress to sexual infidelity than those lacking such experiences.

Cross-Cultural Studies.

Buunk et al., (1996) presented the jealousy-invoking scenarios to participants from the USA, Germany and the Netherlands.

In each sample (containing more than 200 participants) males were much more likely to choose the sexual infidelity scenario as the most upsetting.

The largest effect was for the American group - the Germans and Dutch have long histories of sexual freedom and equality.

Culture can influence the strength of the adaptive response but the response is still significant.

Buunk et al., (1996) Results.

From Buunk et al., 1996, p361

Comparison of the Techniques.

Pietrzak et al., (2002) compared the various techniques. Participants selected a scenario which would distress

them more and provided continuous ratings while physiological variables were being monitored.

73% of males reported greater distress to the sexual infidelity scenario.

96% of females opted for the emotional distress scenario.

Males reported stronger feelings of anger, rage and betrayal whilst imagining sexual infidelity.

Females reported stronger feelings of anger, anxiety and fear while imagining emotional infidelity.

Males showed greater physiological responses to the sexual infidelity scenario while females showed greater physiological responses to emotional infidelity

Experience of Infidelity.

Sagarin et al., (2003) also used both forced-choice and continuous rating scales and found the predicted sex differences using both measures.

In addition they assessed prior experience of infidelity, hypothesising that such experiences would make the individual particularly sensitive to the possibility of future infidelity.

As predicted the experience of being the victim of a previous infidelity led to males reporting greater distress in response to sexual infidelity, but this did not occur for women.

However, women that had perpetrated an infidelity showed greater distress while men who had

perpetrated an infidelity did not.

Responses to Infidelity.

Shackelford et al., (2002) focused upon sex differences in response to a partner's infidelity.

They reasoned that a single instance of female infidelity would have a large impact on male paternity certainty.

A single instance of male infidelity would have no impact on female reproductive success. However, continued male infidelity resulting in a shift in his emotional commitment could have long-term consequences for the female in question.

They thus predicted: Men would find it more difficult to forgive and be more

likely to break up with a partner who committed a sexual infidelity.

Women would be less likely to forgive and more likely to

break up with a male who committed emotional infidelity.

Shackelford et al (2002) Findings.

In their study 256 students were presented with several forced-choice dilemmas covering their responses to a sexual and emotional infidelity.

Which would they find more difficult to forgive? Which would they consider more likely to lead to a

break-up of the relationship? As predicted, the majority of males (65%) found it

more difficult to forgive a sexual infidelity and felt that such an infidelity (55%) would be more likely to break up the relationship.

The comparable figures for females were 52% and 42% of women respectively.

Characteristics of a Rival.

The status of a jealousy-inducing rival is of course important.

Dijkstra & Buunk (2001) presented men and women with scenarios of rivals flirting with their partners at a party.

After reading the scenario participants turned the page and saw a photograph of the rival (attractive or unattractive) and a personality description (dominant or passive).

The physical attractiveness of a rival did not affect men's feelings of jealousy but their dominance status did.

The reverse was true for females as physical attraction made a big impact but status did not.

The sexes are thus primarily threatened by rivals who embody what their partners may seek.