تفاوت جنسیت در طبیعت برانگیختن حسادت ساخت بدن رقیب

This study among 185 college students showed that potential rivals with a relatively low waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) evoked more jealousy in women than in men. In contrast, rivals with a relatively high shoulder-to-hip ratio (SHR) evoked more jealousy in men than in women, particularly when the rival also had a high WHR. Rivals with a low as opposed to a high WHR were perceived as more socially dominant and attractive in both sexes, and as more physically dominant in the case of men. In addition, rivals of both sexes were perceived as more physically and socially dominant when they had a high SHR, and in the case of men as more attractive. In evaluating the rivals, women indicated that they had paid more attention to the rivals' waist, hips, and legs, and men indicated that they had paid more attention to the rivals' shoulders, chest, and belly. The results provide support for evolutionary psychological hypotheses that men and women pay attention to different bodily features in evaluating the potential threat imposed by a rival.

Evolutionary psychologists have interpreted jealousy as an adaptation for preventing infidelity, elicited when people perceive threats to relationships with their partners due to actual or imagined rivals (e.g., Buss, 2000, Buunk & Dijkstra, 2000 and Daly et al., 1982). People tend to compare rivals' qualities with their own, especially on dimensions that contribute to mate value, and rivals with high mate value are especially threatening Buss et al., 2000 and Dijkstra & Buunk, 1998. For both sexes, a low waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) is an indicator of mate value, because it may serve as a predictor of several diseases, such as hypertension. However, there is abundant evidence that the WHR affects women's mate value more than men's because it is an accurate indicator of a female's reproductive status (Singh, 1993). In particular, women with a WHR in the range of 0.67–0.80 have been found both to have high reproductive capability and to be perceived as most attractive and healthy. Because higher testosterone levels in men stimulate fat deposits in the abdominal region while inhibiting fat deposits on the hips and thighs, healthy adult men generally have much higher WHRs than healthy adult women, typically between 0.85 and 0.95 (e.g., Singh, 1995). For women the “ideal” WHR lies around 0.7, while for men the ideal is approximately 0.9.