Sexual Jealousy as a Facultative Trait: Evidence From the Pattern of Sex Differences in Adults From China and the United States

Across two studies, 716 and 308 undergraduate students from the United States and mainland China, respectively, were administered a series of measures on jealousy, emotional responses to partner infidelity, family background, and personality. Across both studies for the U.S. and Chinese samples, a higher proportion of males than females reported more distress to a partner's Imagined sexual infidelity than to emotional Infidelity, whereas a higher proportion of females than males reported more distress to a partner's emotional infidelity than to sexual infideflty, consistent with theoretical expectations and previous empirical research. However, a much higher proportion of US. males and females reported more distress to sexual infidelity than their stone.sex Chinese peers, suggesting that the tendency toward sexual jealousy might be facuitalivdy influenced by sexual permtuiveness in the general culture. The overall pattern of mulls is considered in terms of individual and contextual differences in the expression of jealousy, as well as in terms of the emotional and behavioral responses associated with jealousy reactions.