Romantic Jealousy: A Test of Social Cognitive and Evolutionary Models in A Population-Representative Sample of Adults

A Narrative Review of the Dichotomy Between the Social Views of Non-Monogamy and the Experiences of Consensual Non-Monogamous People

Monogamy is deeply rooted in most Western societies, shaping how people construe and behave in romantic relationships. These normative views facilitate the emergence of negative perceptions and evaluations when people choose not to adhere to mononormativity. Even though people in consensual non-monogamous (CNM) relationships are targets of stigmatization, research shows a dichotomy between these negative views and the relational experiences of CNM people. Indeed, people in CNM and monogamous relationships have comparable relationship functioning and quality and struggle with similar relationship problems. One of the differences is that CNM relationships afford people to explore their sexuality and fulfill their needs with multiple partners, without agreed-upon extradyadic behavior being perceived as infidelity or having deleterious consequences to relationship maintenance. These positive experiences notwithstanding, CNM people are continuously pressured by mononormativity and stigmatization, increasing the risk of internalized CNM negativity and worse personal and relational outcomes. One possible way to counteract CNM stigmatization and improve the lives of CNM people is by changing discourses surrounding non-monogamy and improving acceptance, not only in professional settings but also in the general population. Another strategy is to understand how the relationship beliefs and scripts of younger generations can help promote more inclusive and diverse societies.

What is Infidelity? A Vignette Study on Norms and Attitudes toward Infidelity

Infidelity is more than extradyadic intercourse, but it is unclear where infidelity begins and how behaviors are related to each other. We investigated data from a factorial survey experiment implemented in the German Family Panel (pairfam). 9,104 respondents evaluated 26,633 vignettes on unfaithful behaviors including four dimensions: explicit behavior, emotional involvement, infidelity duration, and erotic online contact. Results suggest that item lists may not reveal the full picture of unfaithfulness. While intercourse is judged as unfaithful irrespective of the context, less explicit behaviors such as kisses or hugs were also regarded as infidelity. Nonphysical dimensions contributed to infidelity judgments more strongly when less explicit behaviors were evaluated. Even cases of no physical contact combined with erotic text messages and emotional involvement were evaluated as unfaithful. Women's judgments were stricter than men's, and younger respondents' evaluations were stricter than those from older respondents. No differences were found regarding the gender of the vignette character.

With or Without You: Associations Between Frequency of Internet Pornography Use and Sexual Relationship Outcomes for (Non)Consensual (Non)Monogamous Individuals

More frequent internet pornography use is often associated with decreased sexual satisfaction. However, individuals who use internet pornography more often can experience better relationship outcomes, depending on how they use it in the context of their relationship. Indeed, internet pornography use with the partner seems to be positively associated with sexual satisfaction. We explored whether the type of agreement partners have about monogamy is related to this association. We conducted a cross-sectional study (N = 866; 66.3% women, Mage = 27.40, SD = 8.58) with individuals in monogamous (n = 552), non-consensual non-monogamous (NCNM; n = 210) and consensually non-monogamous (CNM; n = 104) relationships. Results showed that CNM individuals used internet pornography substantially more than the other two groups, but they were as sexually satisfied with themselves and with their primary partner as monogamous individuals. NCNM individuals were the least sexually satisfied and reported more sexual arousal difficulties than the other groups. Results further showed that CNM individuals included their primary partner in their internet pornography use more frequently than the other groups, and this inclusion was positively associated with sexual satisfaction with the primary partner. The frequency of internet pornography use with the partner was negatively associated with sexual arousal difficulties for monogamous individuals and positively associated with personal and relational sexual satisfaction in both monogamous and NCNM individuals. These results complement past findings by shedding light on the role of internet pornography use for different relationship agreements, and its association with personal and relational experiences.

Investigating the emergence of sex differences in jealousy responses in a large community sample from an evolutionary perspective

Sex differences in jealousy responses to sexual and emotional infidelity are robust in samples of heterosexual adults, especially in more gender egalitarian nations. However, investigations of when and how these differences develop have been scant. We applied two forced choice infidelity scenarios in a large community sample of high school students (age 16–19, N = 1266). In line with previous findings on adults using the forced choice paradigm, adolescent males found the sexual aspect of imagined infidelity more distressing than adolescent females did. Nevertheless, there was no effect of age on the jealousy responses, and age did not moderate the sex difference. There were neither any effects of three covariates (having had first sexual intercourse, being in a committed romantic relationship, and sociosexuality), neither as markers of pubertal maturation nor as psychosocial environmental stimuli. Future research needs to investigate even younger samples in order to specify at what age the sex difference in jealousy responses emerges.