Origin of jealous behaviour

[Ayinde]

By Dr David Whitehouse
BBC News Online science editor

In relationships, it is well known than men are mostly jealous about sex, while women are mostly concerned about emotional attachments.

Psychologists have conflicting explanations for this, believing it comes either from evolution or from culture. The new cross-cultural research suggests the former is more important.

It reveals that Brazilian men are the most jealous; Swedish men and women are more concerned about sex than any other nation, and Japan is the least jealous country.

Evolution or society

In many cultures, men tend to be most jealous about their partners having sex with someone else. Women, on the other hand, are more likely to be upset about their partners forming an emotional attachment with another party.

It seems that males want to know if their rival was good in bed; females want to know if he loves the "other woman".

Psychologists argue about the source of jealousy. Does it have deep-rooted origins in human evolution, or has it been modified by more recent social changes?

Those in favour of the evolutionary explanation say it could be due to the fact that men can never be absolutely certain that a child is really theirs. Hence, their desire for partners not to have sex with another man.

They also maintain that the origin of jealousy in women is due to the substantial investment they make in time and energy in producing a child. They do not want it to be wasted if their partner falls in love with someone else.

The alternative viewpoint is that men are upset by sex because they think it implies emotional commitment, although they also believe a woman can be emotionally involved without having sex.

Women are upset by emotional infidelity because they believe that for men it automatically means sex, although women believe that men can have sex without commitment.

Evolution and fertility

Gary Brase, working at the University of Sunderland, UK, looked at jealousy in many countries and found the expected differences between men and women.

He found that the biggest difference between men and women was in Brazil; the smallest in Japan. Another finding was that Swedish women were the most concerned about their partners having sex with someone else.

Looking deeper into his survey, Brase noticed that the fertility rate of the country seemed to make a big difference.

Countries with high fertility rates, like Brazil, had men who were very jealous about their partners having sex with others. Men in countries with a lower overall fertility rate, such as Japan, were less bothered.

Brase believes the results support the evolutionary view of the origin of jealous behaviour.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3045410.stm

[Empress_FiYah]

Blessed Love Ayinde:

This is fascinating and adds to our research.  It does coincide with some theories that I have been researching and concluding.  For instance, men have a smaller corpus collosum (the small piece that bridges the gap between the two hemispheric lobes of our brain) and therefore when information is processed, lets say in the left side the brain, it stays on the left side of the brain and is not co-mingled with thoughts and mental processes on the right side of the brain.  Women, on the other hand, have larger corpus collusums and we process things throughout the brain.  Therefore men have a greater ability to seperate sex from emotion, whereas women equate sex with emotion.  So it seems natural that a man equates infidelity on a sex-only basis when thinking about their women.  Oddly enough do not deem their own infidelities as "cheating" as it is seperated from their familial ties.  Women think that if a man is going to risk everything and cheat, that he MUST be emotionally attached, adn to us, there is the bigger threat, as we equate sex with emotional attachments.  Women have a harder time lettting go after a sexual encounter and many exhibit feelings of "invasion" or "violation" when a man makes it clear the "morning after" that he is out the door.  As well, many "promiscuous" women are not driven by hormones, but by an emotional need that is lacking, whereas most promiscuous men are driven by the endowment of testastarone.  However, to not take biology totally out of the equation, studies do show that women who have higher testastarone levels are more sexually active.  Let us continue to look deeper and further.

Eternal Guidance
Empress FiYah

[Ayinde]

Let us continue to look deeper and further.

On a psychological level, the origin of jealousy is the illegitimate feeling of entitlement based on a subjective evaluation of one's worth.

This is a deeply engrained conduct that fueled the hormonal imbalances that separates men from males and women from females.  

All of these hormone imbalances play on the emotions and they can be brought under control by legitimately engaging one's self which allows for the infusion of complimentary hormones to balance the system. However, this takes time and work that few engage.