Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 30, 2026

Experimental Research Examining How People Can Cope with Uncertainty Through Soft Haptic Sensations
Published on: September 16, 2015
Sex differences in subjective distress to unfaithfulness: testing competing evolutionary and violation of infidelity
Robert Ervin Cramer1, Ryan E Lipinski, John D Meteer
1Department of Psychology, California State University, San Bernardino, 5500 University Parkway, San Bernardino, CA 92407-2397, USA. rcramer@csusb.edu
Abstract:
According to an evolutionary psychology perspective, men's and women's processing of threats to their sex-linked mate selection strategies cause sex differences in infidelity distress. An alternative account assumes that the distress results from men's and women's processing of expectation violations regarding the content of an unfaithful partner's actions with a rival. Logistic regressions supported the conclusion that the participant's sex-but not the processing of expectation violations-was the best predictor of the most distressing infidelity presented in forced-choice, mutually exclusive, and combined formats. Our results also indicated that the sex differences in infidelity distress were neither limited to using data from a forced-choice response format nor caused by the distinct inferences that men and women draw about the relation between love and sex.
Related Concept Videos
Jealousy in Romantic Relationships
Self-Discrepancy Theory
Criticisms of the Evolutionary Perspective
Evolutionary psychology provides one explanation for these findings, suggesting...
Self-Discrepancy and Its Effects
Causes of Similarity-Dissimilarity Effect
Ending Relationships

