Wednesday 18 May 2022 04:19 PM Just friends? Women are more jealous than men of their spouse's opposite-sex ... trends now
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From Harry Potter to My Best Friend's Wedding, many blockbuster films feature friendships between men and women.
Now, a new study has shed light on the 'green-eyed monster' when it comes to these friendships.
Researchers from the University of Texas in Austin claim that women are more jealous than men of their spouse's opposite-sex friends.
From Harry Potter to My Best Friend's Wedding (pictured), many blockbuster films feature friendships between men and women
Researchers from the University of Texas in Austin claim that women are more jealous than men of their spouse's opposite-sex friends
While previous studies have focused on sex differences in jealousy, the researchers set out to assess whether men and women differ when it comes to jealousy of their spouse's opposite-sex friends.
In their study, published in Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences, the researchers, led by Alyssa Sucrese, wrote: 'Past research in evolutionary psychology has proposed, and found evidence of, sex differences in the adaptive functions of jealousy.
'However, no research has focused specifically on the output of jealousy adaptations in the context of a spouse's apparently platonic extramarital friendship.'
A group of 364 participants were recruited for the study, all of whom were married and at least 18 years old.
The participants were randomly assigned into one of four groups, in which they read different scenarios involving their spouse meeting a new friend of varying sex and attractiveness.
They were asked to judge whether they felt any jealousy in the scenario, and to
