• DOI:10.1177/0146167203256880
• Corpus ID: 19133225

Gender-Typical Responses to Sexual and Emotional Infidelity as a Function of Mortality Salience Induced Self-Esteem Striving

@article{Goldenberg2003GenderTypicalRT,
  title={Gender-Typical Responses to Sexual and Emotional Infidelity as a Function of Mortality Salience Induced Self-Esteem Striving},
  author={Jamie L. Goldenberg and Mark Jordan Landau and Tom Pyszczynski and Cathy R. Cox and Jeff Greenberg and Sheldon Solomon and Heather Dunnam},
  journal={Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin},
  year={2003},
  volume={29},
  pages={1585 - 1595}
}

• J. Goldenberg, M. Landau, +4 authors H. Dunnam
• Published 1 December 2003
• Psychology
• Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin

The authors propose that gender-differentiated patterns of jealousy in response to sexual and emotional infidelity are engendered by the differential impact of each event on self-esteem for men and women. Study 1 demonstrated that men derive relatively more self-esteem from their sexlives, whereas women’s self-esteem is more contingent on romantic commitment. Based on terror management theory, it is predicted that if gender-differentiated responses to infidelity are motivated by gender-specific contingencies for self-esteem, they should be intensified following reminders of mortality. In Study 2, mortality salience (MS) increased distress in response to sexual infidelity for men and emotional infidelity for women. Study 3 demonstrated that following MS, men who place high value on sexin romantic relationships exhibited greater distress in response to sexual infidelity, but low-ex-value men’s distress was attenuated. The authors discuss the implications for evolutionary and self-esteem-based accounts of jealousy as well as possible integration of these perspectives.