Effects of sexual and romantic imaginations on gender differences in response to partners’ infidelity: testing the sexual imagination hypothesis

Men are more sensitive to their partners’ sexual infidelity than women, whereas women are more sensitive to their partner’s emotional (romantic) infidelity than men. The sexual imagination hypothesis predicts that such gender differences in jealousy stem from the fact that explicit imagery differs between men and women. Specifically, men tended to imagine sexual infidelity more explicitly or easily than women, whereas women tended to envision emotional infidelity more vividly or effortlessly than men. Therefore, this sexual imagination hypothesis was tested. Participants (190 females and 112 males) completed questionnaires to measure responses to their partner’s infidelity, sexual and romantic imagination, masculinity, and femininity. Multiple regression analyses revealed that sexual and romantic imaginations were associated with gender differences in jealousy. Specifically, higher sexual and romantic imaginations were associated with greater distress over partners’ sexual and emotional infidelity, respectively, even when controlling for the effects of gender, masculinity, and femininity. Furthermore, gender differences in jealousy disappeared when sexual and romantic imaginations were entered into the regression equations. Our results support this hypothesis. Our findings are discussed in relation to the associations between gender roles and gender differences in jealousy.