Evolutionary origins of sex differences in jealousy? Questioning the ''fitness'' of the model

Evolutionary psychology has become a popular framework for studying jealousy. Much of this popularity can be attributed to work by Buss and his colleagues showing an apparent relation between an individual's sex and jealousy for certain types of infidelity (i.e., sexual vs. emotional) that is consistent with evolutionary theory (Buss, Larsen, Westen, & Semmelroth, 1992). In two studies, we take issue with these findings and argue that the relation between sex and jealousy reported by Buss and his colleagues is more properly explained by considering individuals' beliefs concerning the covariation between sexual and emotional infidelity.