Video Click Here Love can blind you, but what about jealousy? Apparently, the green-eyed monster has a power all its own.

Jealousy

Researchers define jealousy as an emotional reaction to a real or perceived threat to a valued relationship. Although jealousy is often equated with male-female relationships, it can also occur among close friends of the same sex.

Jealousy is a very natural emotional reaction. The closer a person becomes to someone else, the greater the likelihood jealousy will occur when that relationship is "threatened" by another person. The range of reactions varies widely, from short or subtle (like a cold shoulder or snide remark) to extreme, and sometimes criminal. Investigators have identified five factors that influence the degree of a jealous reaction: self-esteem, paranoia, fear of being abandoned, interpersonal sensitivity and obsessionality. Researchers report men tend to be more jealous of a partner's sexual encounters, while women tend to be jealous of a partner's emotional cheating.

A Psychology Today report estimates one-third of couples undergoing marriage counseling have issues with jealousy. The emotion is also common among younger unmarried couples, especially in the beginning stages of relationship and trust building.

Emotions can affect our ability to think, pay attention and remember. Now, a study shows, jealousy may affect our ability to "see" as well. The study involved romantically involved college-aged couples. A couple sat side-by-side at computers, separated by a curtain. First, the women were asked to identify which pictures in a rapid sequence of images were pointed in the wrong direction. At the same time, the men were asked to rate landscape pictures for attractiveness. After ten minutes, a researcher came in and told the men to take another ten minutes to rate pictures of women for attractiveness. They were told that some of the women in the pictures were from the college campus. The instructions were spoken loud enough to ensure the female participants could hear them. The women continued looking for the pictures pointed in the wrong direction.

The investigators found that during the second ten-minute session (while the men were looking a pictures of women), the female volunteers had a harder time picking out the wrong-way images. Steven Most, Ph.D., Cognitive Psychologist with the University of Delaware in Newark, DE, says the stronger the jealousy reaction, the harder it was for the female to pick out the target pictures. He calls this jealousy effect, "emotion-induced blindness." The effects of the second set of instructions on the women's performance was so strong, the researchers ran a second study to confirm the results. Although the researchers only tested women for jealousy effects, Most believes the results would be the same if the roles had been reversed and women were asked to rate pictures of men.

 SOURCES

J-P Laurenceau, Ph.D. (featured in story), Clinical Psychologist, University of Delaware, c/o: Office of Communications and Marketing, Newark, DE 19716. (Media Contact: Andrea Boyle, (302) 831-1421.)

Steven Most, Ph.D. (featured in story), Cognitive Psychologist, University of Delaware, c/o: Office of Communications and Marketing, Newark, DE 19716. (Media Contact: Andrea Boyle, (302) 831-1421.)

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