Infidelity Research

Research regarding infidelity has suggested that women and men have different jealousy responses that correspond to different qualities in their relationship. It has been seen that when infidelity occurs in a relationship, men often ask question regarding how sexual the relationship was unlike women who ask questions regarding the emotional part of the relationship. Although research studies have confirmed this idea, criticisms have arisen regarding the nature in which these infidelities were tested. As a result, the researcher of this study sought to study infidelities in a natural setting in order to determine whether women and men have developed different types of jealousy reactions in order to see how detrimental was the infidelity of their partner. The researcher hypothesized that women would be more concerned with the emotion present in the infidelity …show more content…
Coders went through training using four episodes to be able to identify the different responses for each jealousy and to ensure they all agreed. Coders then watched other episodes and coded the cases using a sheet that asked about what happened in that case and which jealousy, either emotional or sexual, was expressed. Three or more coders were used for each episode and if their answers did not all agree, the majority answer was chosen. Coders were also asked to answer a question regarding the presence of either jealousy type when the victim asked questions.
The results of this study showed that victims who were females questioned infidelity quality in 45 of their cases and males 30 of their cases. The hypothesis of this study was also supported confirming that males are concerned more about how sexual was the infidelity, 57%, and women are more concerned about the emotion present in the infidelity, 71%. Sex-differentiation was also found to be significant among the response