Women from Venus, men from Mars? The Influence of sexual orientation, gender roles and relationship experiences on evolved sex differences in romantic jealousy

Jealousy is one of the most interesting issues when it comes to romantic relationships. Many arguments which suggest some fundamental differences among men and women about romantic jealousy exist. The most ambitious prediction about sex differences in jealousy comes from an evolutionary perspective. Accordingly, men are more upset over a mate's sexual infidelity, because men face the risk of unwittingly investing in genetically unrelated offspring in this case. Women, on the other hand, are more upset over a mate's emotional infidelity, because women face the risk of men going away with his resources in this case (Buss et al., 1992). These threats are loss for reproductive fitness; therefore jealousy has evolved as sex-specific. From this point of view, evolutionary psychologists found the predicted sex differences using empirical methods (e.g. Sagarin, 2012b). Yet this prediction has not been supported by every researcher (e.g. Harris, 2003a), and some of them suggested alternative social factors which could influence sex differences in jealousy. The aim of the present study was to explore how the predicted sex differences in jealousy would emerge in Turkey and also, to investigate the possible effects of several variables such as sexual orientation, relationship status, relationship experience, previous infidelity experience, being unfaithful, gender roles and perspectives on sex differences in jealousy. The sample of the study consisted of 213 heterosexual men, 296 heterosexual women, 50 homosexual men, 31 homosexual women, and 40 others (e.g. bisexuals, asexuals, etc.) with an average age of 27.33. Participants completed a set of questionnaires including the questionnaire which comprises hypothetical infidelity dilemma (Buss et al., 1992), Bem Sex Role Inventory, Gender Roles Attitudes Scale and various related demographic questions. According to the results, 89.6% of women reported greater distress over their partner's emotional infidelity predominantly; whereas men were almost equally distressed by the two types of infidelity. Gay men were more distressed over emotional infidelity compared to heterosexual men. On the other hand, other variables (e.g. relationship status, infidelity experience, gender roles) generally did not moderate the decisions of infidelity type. The results are discussed in relation to the evolutionary hypothesis and the alternative social perspectives. Key words: Sex differences in jealousy, evolutionary psychology, homosexuals, gender roles, romantic relationships, jealousy.