PsychBook Research

Collecting and analysing psychological research on the most popular social networking site in the world today.

Sex differences in jealousy over Facebook activity

Highlights

  • Females are more prone to jealousy over Facebook activity than are males.
  • Males are aware of the sex difference in jealousy; females are not.
  • Misunderstandings about Facebook use are a source of problems in romantic relationships.

Abstract

Forty heterosexual undergraduate students 24 females, 16 males who were currently in a romantic relationship filled out a modified version of The Facebook Jealousy questionnaire Muise, Christofides, & Desmarais, 2009. The questionnaire was filled out twice, once with the participant’s own personal responses, and a second time with what each participant imagined that his/her romantic partner’s responses would be like. The data indicated that females were more prone to Facebook-evoked feelings of jealousy and to jealousy-motivated behavior than males. Males accurately predicted these sex differences in response to the jealousy scale, but females seemed unaware that their male partners would be less jealous than themselves.

via Sex differences in jealousy over Facebook activity.

Categories: Papers