The case in summary Two professors at NTNU have researched jealousy in relationships, and how men and women experience and understand this feeling differently. Men get more jealous than women when it comes to sexual infidelity, while women react more to emotional infidelity. The study shows that we are generally good at interpreting jealousy, and that we understand jealousy better in our own sex. The researchers believe that our understanding of jealousy is largely innate, and not influenced by society. Psychologist Johan Åhlén at the Karolinska Institute also researches jealousy, and believes it is possible to learn to be less jealous. Åhlén says that many who struggle with jealousy find that it affects their lives negatively, and want help to deal with the problem. The summary is made by an AI service from OpenAi. The content is quality assured by news’s journalists before publication. Anyone who is in a relationship knows that things can turn around pretty quickly. From a good atmosphere to the exact opposite. What happened now, like? Sometimes this is linked to jealousy. A feeling that can be difficult to shake off. And perhaps not always so easy for the other party to understand. Two professors at NTNU in Trondheim decided to take a closer look at this. – What do people think triggers women’s and men’s jealousy? How well do women understand men’s jealousy and men women’s jealousy? We wanted to find out, says Mons Bendixen at the Department of Psychology. You can read the study in its entirety here. Different starting points According to the researchers, men become more jealous than women when it comes to sexual infidelity. Women react more to emotional infidelity. For example, a man who talks a lot and confides with a female friend may risk his partner becoming jealous. Without him fully understanding why. Do you struggle with jealousy? Yes, it can be destructive for my relationships No, from time to time I feel this Maybe a little, but it doesn’t bother me No Show result Professor Bendixen and Professor Leif Edward Ottesen Kennair have long researched emotions in and around relationships. But this is the first study to look at whether we actually understand why this happens. The researchers analyzed responses from 1,213 participants. A full 86 per cent of them were heterosexual, but they also carried out analyzes of bisexuals and homosexuals. They found no major differences between the various groups. What they found, however, was that we are actually surprisingly good at interpreting jealousy. Social psychologist Mons Bendixen has previously conducted research into, among other things, sexual harassment, misinterpretation of sexual signals and sexual remorse. Photo: Kirsti Kringstad / news Women understand other women Naturally, women are best at understanding other women’s jealousy. This is also the case for men. – We understand our own gender best. Men are generally good at understanding other men’s jealous reactions, and women are the opposite, says Professor Kennair. Then it is often wrong if we only use our own feelings as a starting point to interpret why the partner is jealous. The researchers explain further: If you only take yourself and your feelings as a starting point, it is not always easy to understand why your partner becomes jealous. – But at the same time, we are surprisingly skilled at understanding the opposite sex, at group level, says Bendixen. Don’t really let us influence In the survey, the participants were also asked why they think jealousy occurs, and whether society can help influence us. But social influence is supposed to have no say. The researchers believe we have an innate ability to interpret these sometimes twisted feelings. – We believe that this is largely something innate, something programmed into us, says Professor Bendixen to Gemini. But is there hope for dealing with jealousy in a good way? Leif Edward Kennair is a professor at NTNU. He researches, among other things, relationships, love and jealousy. Photo: Jøte Toftaker/news Many people want help Johan Åhlén is a psychologist at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden. He also researches jealousy, and believes there are ways to learn to be less jealous. – In my research, I want to understand who is struggling with this and how we can help them. The psychologist says that previous research has revealed that many who struggle with jealousy also believe that it affects their lives negatively. And that many wish they had help to deal with the problem. -In humans, we get scared, worried and sad when we think that we could lose something important to us. And it’s no wonder, says Åhlén. He believes that jealousy can be a problem that affects everyone, but that it can seem as if some people tend to get stuck in such destructive thoughts. Here, he does not think there are any particular differences between men and women. But the psychologist says that we still don’t know much about why some people get very jealous, while others cope better. Nevertheless, he has some advice for you who are struggling: – If you feel that you are excessively jealous, it may be good to reduce behavior aimed at investigating or checking whether your partner is interested in someone else or going behind your back. Such behavior tends to reinforce the jealousy, and affect the relationship negatively. -Instead, you can try to increase behavior that is in line with how you want your relationship to look, and how you want to be as a partner.
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When it comes to understanding jealousy, we understand our own gender best – news Trøndelag – Local news, TV and radio
