Jealousy in the blink of an eye: Jealous reactions following subliminal exposure to rival characteristics

Abstract

In the present experiment it was investigated whether the evaluation of rivals could be an unconscious process, engaged in automatically whenever a rival is present. To this end, participants were subliminally primed with words relating to rival characteristics after which they read a jealousy inducing scenario and their jealousy was assessed. It was hypothesized that for women, their self-reported mate value would act as a moderator on the effect the rival characteristics would have on jealousy. For men, it was expected that their satisfaction with their current relationship would act as a moderator. The results confirmed the expectations: women with low mate value reported more overall jealousy, but women with high mate value were more jealous after priming with attractiveness words. Men with high relationship satisfaction reported more overall jealousy than men with low relationship satisfaction, and especially after priming with social dominance words.

Individual Differences in Preventive Jealousy Determine Men's Jealousy after Subliminal Exposure to Rivals Wearing High- or Low-Status Clothes

“…In addition, there are indications that physical dominance and upper body muscularity are attractive to women (e.g., Frederick & Haselton, 2007), especially in the context of shortterm relationships. Indeed, the jealousy-evoking potential of these characteristics has been confirmed in several studies, which show that overall, a rival's physical attractiveness evokes more jealousy in women, and a rival's status and social and physical dominance evoke more jealousy in men (Dijkstra & Buunk, 2002;Massar, Buunk, & Dechesne, 2009).…”

“…Participants used the mouse to slide a knob to the position on the scale that best indicated their feelings. This measure has been used in previous research, and it consistently shows strong correlations with the adjective “jealous” taken from the Multiple Adjective Rating Scale for jealousy (DeSteno & Salovey, 1996), ranging from r = .84 (Massar et al., 2009) to r = .75 (Massar & Buunk, 2009). In the current study, the jealousy slider was also strongly related to the adjective “jealous”( r = .73, p < .001) as well as with the average of all adjectives reported below ( r = .63, p < .001).…”

“…As such, this method provides an opportunity to assess participants' responses to a rival while circumventing demand characteristics and socially desirable answers. In previous research, it was shown that after being exposed to subliminally presented rival characteristics, men and women responded with varying degrees of jealousy (Massar & Buunk, 2009: partial η 2 = 0.05–0.06; Massar & Buunk, 2010: Cohen's d = 0.65 – 0.81; Massar, et al., 2009: Cohen's d = 0.55–0.60). The present study aims to extend these findings by showing that jealousy can be evoked in a similar manner by exposure to rivals of varying status, as indicated by their clothing.…”

Pet dogs’ behavior when the owner and an unfamiliar person attend to a faux rival

“…fear, anger, sadness) and accompanied by overt behaviors directed at restoring the relationship by reducing the threat represented by the interloper and regaining attention and care from a significant social partner [ 14 , 15 ]. It has been proposed that jealousy could also occur outside conscious awareness [ 9 , 16 ], without the need of cortically mediated cognition [ 13 ] and in the absence of complex interpretations of the meaning of the social interaction [ 17 ]. Thus, at least a primordial form of jealousy could arise in other animals in specific situations where a significant relationship is threatened.…”

How toxic leaders are perceived: gender and information-processing

“…People considered more physically attractive are assumed to be more likable, more social and more successfulthe "what is beautiful is good" phenomenon (Dion et al, 1972). However, negative aspects of attractiveness have also been documentedthe "beauty is beastly" effect (Braun et al, 2012), with women displaying higher levels of anxiety toward more attractive women, resulting in reduced trust in the attractive individual (Massar et al, 2009;Murray and Price, 2010). Accordingly, assessing leader attractiveness would help clarify how appearance may influence perceptions of leader toxicity.…”