Passionate Love and Sexual Desire - Elaine Hatfield

28jealousy's pangs. She observed: “Jealousy is not a barometer by which depth of lovecan be read. It merely records the degree of the lover's insecurity . . . it is a negative,miserable state of feeling, having its origin in the sense of insecurity and inferiority”(pp. 120-121). Researchers in the United States, Israel, and the Netherlands havefound that people with low self-esteem are especially susceptible to jealousy (Bringle& Buunk, 1986; Nadler & Dotan, 1992; White & Mullen, 1989).The French philosopher Rene Descartes, writing in the early 17 th century, definedjealousy as “a kind of fear related to a desire to preserve a possession (cited in Davis,1948/1977, p. 129). Researchers in several countries have found that a loss—whetherone thinks of one's romantic partner or mate as a beloved person or a merepossession—can stir up jealousy (White and Mullen, 1989). Researchers in Israel(Nadler & Dotan, 1992) and the Netherlands (Bringle & Buunk, 1986) have found thatindividuals experience the most jealousy and the most severe physiological reactions(trembling, increased pulse rate, nausea), when an affair poses a serious threat to theirdating or marital relationship.Berscheid and Fei (1977) provide evidence that both factors (low self-esteem andthe fear of loss) are important in fueling jealous passion. They found that the moreinsecure men and women are, the more dependent they are on their romantic partnersand mates, and the more seriously their relationship is threatened, the more fiercelyjealous they will be.A. Gender Differences in Jealousy: Evolutionary Theory1. What makes men and women jealous?