preview

Would Oxytocin Alter Jealousy Essay

Decent Essays

Would Oxytocin Alter Jealousy?
Kiara Riojas
Texas A&M International University

Abstract

Would Oxytocin Alter Jealousy?

As time, people, and life has evolved, one thing tends to remain the same, jealousy. Jealousy is better known to be a “state that is aroused by a perceived threat to a valued relationship or position and motivates behavior aimed to countering the threat” (Daly, Wilson, & Weghorst, 1982, p.11) Males and females of all species become jealous at certain points in life if they feel that their relationship or role is being threatened. According to Daly et al. (1982), male’s jealousy has highly developed into sexual jealousy because of competition with other males. Buss, Larsen, Westen, & Semmelroth performed two studies which measured jealousy in males and females in factors of sexual and emotional infidelity. In the research conducted by Buss et al. (1992), Study 1 measured distress from 202 undergraduate students as they were asked to answer which …show more content…

According to the results, males become more jealous over sexual infidelity rather than emotional infidelity and there is an important element that triggers the rise of their jealousy (Buss et al., 1992). A main component that contributes greatly at the increase of male jealousy is paternity uncertainty (Buss, Larsen, Westen, & Semmelroth, pg. 205). When males underestimate the faithfulness of the female, they begin to have doubts in the paternity of the children he is raising. Males are territorial. They do not like to share what is theirs, therefore if a woman and a child are his, he will not let another man sleep with his woman or let another man raise his child. Even though men are territorial towards their women and children, if they do not release oxytocin for that woman, his sexual urge may be sought elsewhere. This is when infidelity

Get Access