Go forward on thy way from good to better: Brihaspati precede thy steps and guide thee! Place this man here, within this earth’s enclosure, afar from foes with all his men about him.

-- Atharva Veda

Apparently, culture plays a big part in men and women’s experience of sexual and emotional jealousy, and they are not as different as evolutionary psychologists have argued. Evolutionary psychologists have long said men tend to care more about sexual infidelity than women, who are supposedly more concerned about emotional infidelity.

The differences were attributed to natural selection—sexual jealousy prompts men to prevent women from bearing other men’s children; while emotional jealousy motivates women to ensure men provide for them and their offspring. The research done by the University of California involved comparing results of studies in different countries. Some found large differences between American men and women, but found equally large differences between American and European men, and even greater disparities among Asian men. One study showed only 25 per cent of Chinese men found sexual infidelity most distressing, while for 75 per cent it is emotional infidelity. The study also questioned studies that claimed men were more likely to kill their spouses in a jealous rage. It found women are just as likely to do it.