Heterosexual men tend to be most jealous when it comes to sexual infidelity. Gay and bisexual men, by contrast, suffer most when their partner is emotionally unfaithful—for example, when they find themselves attracted to someone else. This is the finding of a Norwegian-American study recently published in the peer-reviewed journal Archives of Sexual Behavior, which covers research in sexology and psychology.
Among women, these orientation-based differences are not observed: they report stress primarily from emotional infidelity, whether they identify as lesbians, bisexual women, or heterosexual women. In this regard, they behave similarly to gay and bisexual men.
The researchers surveyed about 4,500 people aged 16 to 80 in Norway for their study. They recruited participants through Facebook and also via the queer website gaysir.no.
The three authors—the psychologists Leif Edward Ottesen Kennair and Mons Bendixen of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim, along with David P. Schmitt of Kansas State University—trace the differences between heterosexual and homosexual men to the possibility of fathering a child. Heterosexual men fear their partner could leave them if she becomes pregnant by another man. That problem does not exist for gay men.
Bisexual Men Are a “Great Mystery”
As a “great mystery,” the researchers describe the results for bisexual men. “Bisexual men with female partners behave differently from heterosexual men with female partners,” explained Professor Mondixen. “These bisexual men are also more likely to be jealous of emotional infidelity than of sexual infidelity.” This finding thus contradicts the childbearing theory.
“We still don’t know why this is,” said Professor Kennair. It may be that the reaction is simply stronger among traditionally heterosexual men, while the reaction of bisexual men, due to their experiences, has been “feminized.” More research is needed on this question.
