Gender, jealousy, and attachment: A (more) thorough examination across measures and samples

We examined the role of attachment and gender on responses to hypothetical sexual and emotional infidelity. Unlike previous studies, both categorical and continuous attachment style and infidelity distress measures were administered to separate samples of college students and adults. Consistent with previous jealousy research, we found moderate gender differences on forced-choice measures of infidelity distress but smaller differences on continuous measures. However, across all analyses, attachment style was not a significant predictor. We discuss this failure to replicate Levy and Kelly (2010) and provide suggestions for future research.

► We examine attachment, gender, and responses to partner sexual and emotional infidelity.
► We used both categorical and dimensional attachment measures.
► We used both categorical and continuous infidelity distress measures.
► We included both college student and adult samples.
► We found expected gender differences, but no significant attachment effects.