Attachment Style and Jealousy in the Digital Age: Do Attitudes About Online Communication Matter?

Abstract

Romantic jealousy, a complex response to a real or perceived threat to a romantic relationship, can have serious negative consequences for individuals, partners and perceived rivals. The likelihood of a jealous response is heightened among individuals who experience attachment anxiety, and online communication and social media provide unique fodder for romantic jealousy. The purpose of the current study is to test whether the association between attachment anxiety and online jealousy (jealous response to ambiguous hypothetical online scenarios) is moderated by negative attitudes about online communication. Individuals in dating relationships were asked about attachment anxiety and attitudes about online communication (i.e., apprehension and concern about misunderstandings) as well as emotional, cognitive, and behavioral online jealousy. Hierarchical linear regression revealed an attachment anxiety-attitude interaction, such that the link between attachment anxiety and jealousy was stronger for participants with relatively low levels of negative attitudes about online communication compared to participants with relatively high levels of negative attitudes. The current study expands knowledge about attachment anxiety and jealousy in the context of online communication and social media, and highlights the importance of considering attitudes about online communication when studying relationship processes in the digital arena.

The Impact of Romantic Attachment Styles on Jealousy in Young Adults

“…However, some scholars have found connections between attachment anxiety and all components of jealousy (e.g., Rodriguez, DiBello, Øverup, & Neighbors, 2015). Moreover, there is evidence supporting the association of attachment anxiety with emotional, cognitive, and behavioral online jealousy (Sullivan, 2021).…”

Validation study of the Italian brief version of the multidimensional jealousy scale: Psychometric properties, measurement invariance across gender, and convergent validity

“…In relation to responsiveness to jealousy solicitation scenarios, it must be acknowledged that the digital world has naturally amplified jealousy because a great number of activities on social networks are in the public domain and one can easily have access to a partner’s cell phone and computer. In these cases, social networking and technology play an active role in fueling the form of addiction that jealousy can create ( Hira and Bhogal, 2020 ; Sullivan, 2021 ). Facebook, for example, exposes individuals to vague and ambiguous information about their partner that only increases worry and negative thoughts, turning social networks into a medium used to gather more and more information about the other ( Imperato et al, 2021 ; Tandon et al, 2021 ).…”

Digital Lovers and Jealousy: Anticipated Emotional Responses to Emotionally and Physically Sophisticated Sexual Technologies

“…Criticisms have been advanced of the theory's framing, the methods used to test it, and the interpretations of the evidence [35,[44][45][46][47]. Another explanation for the observed average sex differences in jealousy comes from attachment theory, according to which attachment styles shape individual experiences and expressions of jealousy [47][48][49][50]. Sex differences in attachment styles emerge in adolescence and adulthood [51], and these sex differences, together with the high degree of within-sex variation in attachment styles, may provide a more complete (if not mutually exclusive) explanation for sex differences in the nature and strength of sexual/romantic jealousy [48].…”

“…Technology and the Capacity for New and Old Kinds of Jealousy. New technologies can offer simplified opportunities for testing ideas about human-human behaviour, including emotional responses to infidelity (e.g., [28,30,50,[53][54][55][56][57]). Intrusiveness of social media use into users' time and attention, as well as monitoring of social media activity, generated jealousy, relationship dissatisfaction, and relationship disruption [6,17,18].…”