Does Oxytocin Alter Jealousy?
Kiara Riojas
Texas A&M International University
Abstract
Jealousy exists in the majority of species on earth, from humans to lions, and even insects. The causes for jealousy are quite different for everyone. Throughout history there have only been a few studies which focus on jealousy. Personality psychologists David Buss, Randy Larsen, Drew Westen and Jennifer Semmelroth (1992) created 2 studies where both Study 1 & Study 2 focus on sexual and emotional jealousy. Study 1 recorded participants levels of distress or discomfort when presented with questions of their mate’s sexual &/or emotional infidelity. Study 2 records participants based on imagined thoughts of sexual &/or emotional infidelity monitored…show more content… One of the things in evolution that doesn’t change would be jealousy. Jealousy is defined as a “state that is aroused by a perceived threat to a valued relationship or position and motivates behavior aimed to countering the threat” (Daly, Wilson, & Weghorst, 1982, p.11) Males and females of all species become jealous at certain points in life if they feel that their relationship or role is being threatened. According to Daly et al. (1982), male’s jealousy has highly developed into sexual jealousy because of competition with other males. Buss, Larsen, Westen, & Semmelroth performed two studies which measured jealousy in males and females in factors of sexual and emotional infidelity. In the research conducted by Buss et al. (1992), Study 1 measured distress from 202 undergraduate students as they were asked to answer which circumstances upset them the most, ‘their partner forming a deep emotional attachment to another person or their partner enjoying passionate sex with another person’ (p. 206). In Study 2, Buss et al. (1992) monitored pulse rate of 55 alternative undergraduate students as they were asked to visualize “two scenarios in which their partner became involved with someone else” (p. 207). One of the scenarios was to envision their partner having sexual intercourse with someone else and the other scenario was to envision their partner having an emotional attachment with…show more content… Not only do women release oxytocin when they have sex with the man they love but when they give birth and breastfeed as well. As the oxytocin levels begins to increase for women and an emotional attachment begins to build, a female’s emotional jealousy is focused on a male’s investment to another woman and her offspring (Buss et al., 1992, pg. 205). A woman does not want her man to have an emotional attachment to another woman. Women who release oxytocin know the deep emotional feeling of being in love and they do not want their mates to share that emotional attachment with anyone but them and their children. Women have struggled throughout evolutionary history with males investing more time and effort towards other women. Polygynous marriages still happen today, there have been “reality” tv shows that are based on polygamy such as ‘My Five Wives’ and ‘Sister Wives’ which air on TLC. When I watched a few episodes of ‘Sister Wives’, I recall listening to one of the many wives cry because her husband would spend more time with his other wives rather than with her. When I watched that show, I did not know about oxytocin, but now, I would say her oxytocin levels were high for the man but his simply did not meet her level. Women who commit to monogamous and polygynous marriages risk the amount of deep emotional relationships because the male has other women to share that emotional
