Sex Differences in Feelings of Guilt Arising from Infidelity
Open accessAbstract
Although there is extensive literature regarding sex differences in jealousy due to infidelity, guilt resulting from infidelity remains unexplored. We hypothesize that men will feel guiltier from imagined emotional rather than sexual infidelity, as it is most important for their partner's reproductive success. Similarly, we predict that women will feel more guilt from imagined sexual rather than emotional infidelity. The findings indicate a different pattern; men feel guiltier following sexual infidelity, whereas women feel guiltier following emotional infidelity. Results also show that both sexes believe their partners would have a more difficult time forgiving sexual, rather than emotional, infidelity, but women and not men report that sexual infidelity would more likely lead to relationship dissolution. These findings are discussed in view of evolved mating strategies and individual reproductive success.
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Men are more threatened by sexual infidelity because evolutionarily they were not sure whether the child was theirs and did not want to protect, feed and care for someone else's offspring.
“Men, however, are more threatened by sexual infidelity, as evolutionarily, they were not sure whether the child was theirs (versus the mother who carries her own child) and did not want to protect, feed and care for someone else’s offspring.”
From Love and Infidelity: Causes and Consequences (2023) · cites this paper as [24]
For thousands of years, women depended on men to provide their food, shelter and safety, and this is the reason why they are more hurt by emotional infidelity which may threaten the partner's commitment.
“Fisher et al., observed that for thousands of years, women depended on men to provide their food, shelter and safety, and this is the reason why they are more hurt by emotional infidelity which may threaten the partner’s commitment [24].”
From Love and Infidelity: Causes and Consequences (2023) · cites this paper as [24]
Specific emotional manifestations of infidelity-based trauma include feelings of extreme anger, betrayal, insecurity, rage, shame, guilt, jealousy and sadness.
“Specific emotional manifestations of infidelity-based trauma include feelings of extreme anger, betrayal, insecurity, rage, shame, guilt, jealousy and sadness [24,31,33,34,35,36,37,38,39,40].”
From Love and Infidelity: Causes and Consequences (2023) · cites this paper as [24]
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References 37 · Cited by 31
- Authors
- Fisher, M., Voracek, M., Rekkas, P. V., & Cox, A.
- Affiliations
- Saint Mary's University (CA)
- University of Vienna (AT)
- University of Toronto (CA)
- Centre for Psychology and Computing, Halifax, Canada
- Corresponding author
- Fisher, Maryanne
- Venue
- Evolutionary Psychology
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2008-07-01
- Volume
- 6
- Issue
- 3
- ISSN
- 1474-7049 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2117356412
- Cited by
- 31
- References
- 37
- Citations by year
- 2024: 3 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 1 · 2017: 3 · 2016: 2 · 2015: 3 · 2014: 1 · 2012: 3
- FWCI
- 1.81
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- Evolutionary Psychology (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- Phaidra (Universität Wien) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Emotions and Moral Behavior
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics › Animal Behavior and Reproduction
- Keywords
- infidelity, guilt, sex differences, sexual infidelity, emotional infidelity, jealousy, reproductive success, breakup, forgiveness
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