Saturday, January 28, 2012

Origins of jealousy

Adaptation is a very important concept in Darwin’s theory of evolution. It means that organisms change over time as a result of natural or sexual selection to increase survival and reproductive success. This happens when organisms by obtaining certain traits gain an advantage or solve an adaptive problem.
Psychological mechanisms have also evolved to solve the adaptive problems that our ancestors faced. For example, during our evolutionary history, because of women’s concealed ovulation and extended sexuality, men can never be certain about their paternity, unlike women, who are always one hundred percent sure. According to David J. Buller (2005) since men and women had to face different threats to their reproductive interests, both sexes have evolved jealousy, but through different mechanisms to solve this adaptive problem. For example, if a man thinks that his woman is being unfaithful, it confuses his paternity, putting him at risk of investing his time and resources in another’s man offspring. This situation has predisposed men to focus on cues of sexual infidelity; while women focus more on cues of emotional infidelity, since an emotional involvement of his partner with another woman can result in a loss of his resources and investment in the family.
Attention to infidelity cues and jealousy have been designed by natural selection to reduce paternity confusion and relationship losses by engaging both men and women in retention behaviors that at the end seek to increase their own genes reproductive success.

Do you agree with the conclusion that women feel angrier facing an emotional infidelity while men feel angrier facing a sexual infidelity? Any experiences?



* Buller, J. David. (2005). Adapting minds:Evolutionary psychology and the persistent quest for human nature. The MIT Press, 318-320.