The Differentiation of Social-Comparison Jealousy and Romantic Jealousy

Abstract

Three studies examined the differences between social-comparison jealousy and romantic jealousy. In the first study, 174 subjects rated 53 jealousy-provoking situations on several emotion adjectives. These responses were analyzed by multidimensional scaling, which revealed that they were organized along two basic dimensions: social-comparison versus romantic and fair versus unfair. Romantic situations produced ratings of greater anger, sadness, and embarrassment than social-comparison situations but somewhat less jealousy. In the second study, 18 subjects read brief vignettes describing typcial jealousy-provoking situations. Romantic versus social-comparison situations were compared on several affective and cognitive measures. Although both types of situations promoted equal jealousy ratings, the romantic ones elicited considerably more negative affect. Study 3 replicated Study 2 using 120 subjects who read elaborate vignettes that they were asked to imagine in a self-involving way. Once again, the romantic stories and the social-comparison stories were rated about equally in jealousy, but the romantic ones provoked more negative feelings about the self, lover, and rival. These findings support a view that sees more value in differentiating situations that evoke jealousy than in attempting to differentiate the experience of jealousy versus envy. © 1986 American Psychological Association.