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Definition
The jealousy males feel about female infidelity as an evolutionary reaction to internal female fertilization and paternity uncertainty.
Introduction
When infidelity occurs, males and females experience different biological and social costs. As such, they have developed different reactions toward infidelity. For males, one common reaction is sexual jealousy in order to deter partner infidelity.
The Costs of Infidelity
In species with internal female fertilization, partner infidelity has different costs for males and females. If a male’s mate has sexual contact with other males, the male has a lesser probability of impregnating his mate, and he has greater paternity uncertainty. If the rival male successfully impregnates his mate, the male will have lost the time, energy, nuptial gifts, the female’s parental effort, and the opportunity of mating with other females (Buss et al. 1992). Furthermore, in biparental species, where males...
References
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Ladwig, S. (2017). Male Sexual Jealousy to Deter Partner Infidelity. In: Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_3770-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_3770-1
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