Women's Responses to Opposition and Same-Sex Infidelity in Three Cultures

Semenyna, SW, GómezJiménez, FR & Vasey, PL women's responses to opposition and same-sex infidelity in three cultures. Hamnut 32, 450-469 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12110-021-09405-9

Commentary

Past research has shown that European-American women are more upset by imagining that their male partners are committing homosexual infidelity.

This study attempted to replicate this and extend them in male-female sexual interactions and in two non-Western cultures.

Across six studies in three cultural locations (Canada, Samoa, and Istmo Zapotec), women rated the degree of upset when they imagined that their partner had committed heterosexual and homosexual infidelity.

In a sample of Canadian undergraduates, women reported greater upset in imagining their partner's infidelity with a woman, while a community sample of middle-aged women reported equal upset across types of infidelity.Istmo Zapotec women reported equal upset over infidelity regardless of gender, but a second Zapotec sample reported slightly greater upset at the idea of infidelity with muxe.

These results showed the extent to which cultural context moderates the extent to which same-sex infidelity scenarios are upsetting to women.