A recently published study stepped outside of typically studied societies to gather cross-cultural views on infidelity and jealousy, and it revealed something about the father factor.
The authors of “Patterns of paternal investment predict cross-cultural variation in jealous response” took an infrequently explored approach to studying the subjects of infidelity and jealousy. Although the topics have been researched, few studies have been conducted outside of Western, educated, industrialized, rich and democratic (W.E.I.R.D.) societies.
To gain a cross-cultural understanding of variations in jealous responses, the study’s 16 authors conducted a two-part study of 11 populations on five continents. The responses from 1,048 individuals showed substantial variation across cultures.
A key finding in a published report of the study is that in cultures in which fathers are highly invested in child-rearing, both men and women have a more negative response to the idea of infidelity.
The report’s lead author, Dr. Brooke A. Scelza, associate professor and vice chair of graduate studies in the UCLA department of anthropology, said the genesis of the study was her research in Namibia with Himba pastoralists. Through that work, she learned that both men and women often have multiple romantic partners.
“I was interested in understanding how that affected their propensity toward jealousy,” said Scelza. “I began studying jealousy among Himba, but this soon led to the present study, which aimed to highlight jealous responses that appear to be relatively universal as well as those that vary.
“Furthermore, we were interested in understanding what triggered variation across cultures,” she continued. “We found that the amount of time and resources that fathers typically invested in a society was associated with how severely people in that group felt about infidelity.”
