Evaluation of Rivals in Jealousy Evoking Situations

Results 2004

Research

EXPERIMENT 1: The present research examined whether evaluating a rival is an automatic process, and what the role of one’s mate value is in this process. Participants completed a mate value questionnaire, after which they were subliminally primed with words referring to rival characteristics either relating to physical attractiveness or to social dominance. Each word was subliminally presented for 17 ms and paired with either ‘he’ or ‘she’ (also presented for 17 ms). Next, participants read a short scenario describing a flirtation between their partner and a third person, and indicated how jealous they would feel in that situation. Participants with low mate value reported high levels of jealousy, independent of the rival prime. However, participants with high mate value differed in reported jealousy, depending on the primes: women reported more jealousy when exposed to words relating to physical attractiveness than to social dominance words. Men exposed to the social dominance words reported more jea lousy than men exposed to the attractiveness words. It can be concluded that evaluation of a rival is indeed an automatic process, which, through (subliminal) social comparison, has an effect on subsequent jealousy. Furthermore, mate value plays a crucial role in in determining whether, and which, social comparisons are made.

EXPERIMENT 2: Procedure identical to experiment 1. Words in the social dominance condition were changed; and women's menstrual cycle was assessed. Results show that women respond with more jealousy to subliminal priming with rival characteristics related to attractiveness, and men to rival characteristics related to social dominance. Moreover, women who were in the 'fertile' period of their menstrual cycle were even more sensitive to the attractiveness words than women who were not in their fertile period. For men, their partner's menstrual cycle was also assessed, and results show that men whose partner was in the fertile period at the time of the experiment, reacted with more jealousy to the social dominance words than to the attractiveness words. Participants were not aware of either the subliminal primes or the fact that their menstrual cycle was assessed.

An experiment concerning the double standard of cheating and being cheated on: will participants differ in their opinions if they read about a man or a woman who is cheating or whose partner is cheating on him/her? Data needs to be analyzed.

An experiment concerning the threat an ex-partner poses to one's present relationship, focusing on (rival) characteristics of that ex-partner. Data needs to be analyzed.