The Influence of Facial Femininity on Chinese and White UK Women’s Jealousy

Abstract

It is well established that men report greater jealousy when imagining scenarios in which their romantic partner interacts with men displaying masculine physical characteristics. However, few studies have tested for corresponding effects of sexually dimorphic characteristics on women’s jealousy or tested for these effects in non-Western samples. Thus, we investigated the effects of experimentally manipulated sexually dimorphic face-shape cues on Chinese and White UK women’s jealousy perceptions. Chinese and White UK women both reported greater jealousy when imagining scenarios in which their romantic partner interacted with more feminine women. Both groups of women showed large effects of facial femininity on jealousy perceptions for both Chinese and White UK stimuli. Together, these results suggest that sexually dimorphic facial characteristics influence women’s jealousy and that this effect is not unique to women raised in Western cultures.