The Psychology of Gender 4th Edition

334 Chapter 9

men are more likely than women to confront

their partners with suspicions.

One difficulty with this area of research

is the extent to which sexual infidelity and

emotional infidelity are intertwined. Perhaps

men view sexual infidelity as implying emo-

tional infidelity. Men might think, “If my wife

was unfaithful, she mustreallybe in love with

someone else.” Recall that both women and

men perceive that women connect sex with

love. If that is the case, men are comparing the

combination of sexual and emotional infidelity

to emotional infidelity alone. Women, by con-

trast, may perceive that emotional infidelity

TABLE 9.6 PERCEPTION OF PARTNER BEHAVIOR

Actual Male Partner Behavior

Faithful Unfaithful

Female Perception Faithful 134 96% 34 59%

Unfaithful 6 4% 24 41%

140 58 198

Actual Female Partner Behavior

Faithful Unfaithful

Male Perception Faithful 148 93% 9 25%

Unfaithful 11 7% 27 75%

159 36 195

Source: Adapted from Andrews et al. (2008).

implies sexual infidelity. They may believe that

if their husbands are emotionally unfaithful,

they must also be having sex with the person.

In other words, wives are comparing sexual

infidelity to the combination of emotional and

sexual infidelity. These ideas are summarized

in Figure 9.11. Explore the link between emo-

tional and sexual infidelity in Do Gender 9.6.

Thus although there are patterns of

jealousy that are consistent with evolution-

ary theory, the evidence in favor of an evolu-

tionary theory of sex differences in jealousy

is not clear. A recent review of the literature

found little evidence for sex differences in

FIGURE 9.11 Relation between Sexual and Emotional Infidelity.

Relation Between Sexual + Emotional Infidelity

Men are thinking: Female partner emotional infidelity→emotion

Female partner sexual infidelity→emotion+sex

Conclusion: Males more upset by sexual

infidelity than emotional infidelity

Women are thinking: Male partner emotional infidelity→emotion+sex

Male partner sexual infidelity→sex

Conclusion: Females more upset by emotional

infidelity than sexual infidelity

M09_HELG0185_04_SE_C09.indd 334 6/21/11 12:40 PM