Why Men and Women Get Jealous About Different Things

culled from:goodhousekeeping.com

For as long as people have been dating, falling in love, and forming lasting relationships, there has been this frustratingly complicated emotion around, too. It's called jealousy. And for as long as researchers have studied it, it's been affecting men and women differently.
How? Past studies have found that men are more upset by the idea of sexual infidelity (even when an emotional connection is lacking), and women are more upset by the idea of emotional infidelity (even when a physical exchange does not take place).
Recently, researchers from Chapman University and UCLA tried to replicate these findings. They surveyed four different groups (heterosexual men and women, as well as homosexual men and women), and according to their findings published in the Archives of Sexual Behavior, the idea still stands. The majority of straight males they surveyed said the concept of a partner having sex with someone but not falling in love was more upsetting than cheating emotionally.
So what's to blame for these common conclusions? At the core, researchers said, it all comes back to evolution. For men, evolution dictates that they are more concerned with their DNA surviving, rather than how a child is raised and taken care of. So, the idea of another man having a chance to pass on their genes with their partner, has been (and apparently still is) quite upsetting. On the other hand, women tend to be more concerned with the well-being of their children — in evolutionary terms. So if the man is gone or not emotionally present, survival rates for their offspring are significantly lower.
Granted, this sounds a bit old-fashioned in today's world, and the researchers did note that these studies should be taken with a grain of salt. Sure, evolution has created a familiar pattern, but they do make it clear that other factors have an impact on jealousy in both genders.