UA ALLELE Lecture Series Looks at Sex Differences in Jealousy

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Dr. Brad Sagarin, a psychology professor at Northern Illinois University, will present his lecture, “Sex Differences in Jealousy: The View from the Trenches” on April 28 at 7:30 p.m. in 127 Biology Building on The University of Alabama campus.

This lecture, part of the ALLELE series, is designed for a non-technical audience. It is free and open to the public.

Sagarin has been researching jealous responses in men in women from an evolutionary perspective for the last 15 years. According to the research, there are significant differences in how men and women experience jealousy in relationships.

Men seem to be more threatened by a sexual advance on their relationship, whereas women are more threatened by a potential emotional advance on their relationship.

Therefore, the research being done by Sagarin and his colleagues – the theory of evolved sex differences in jealousy – attempts to explain why sexual and emotional infidelity elicit different levels of jealousy in men and women.

“My lecture will offer a guided tour through the controversy, showing how the theory’s proponents have repelled some (but not all) of the criticisms aimed at it,” Sagarin said. “In the end, I’ll show how the greatest threats to the theory lie not in attempts to refute the empirical evidence but in efforts to overturn the fundamental evolutionary logic on which the theory is based.”

Sagarin studied social influence with Robert Cialdini and quantitative psychology with Stephen West at Arizona State University, where he earned his doctorate. Some of his research interests include attitude change, resistance to persuasion, deception, jealousy, and infidelity, evolutionary psychology, human sexuality, and statistical approaches to missing data and non-compliance.

His presentation is the sixth and final lecture in the 2010-2011 Alabama Lectures on Life’s Evolution, known as ALLELE. The lecture series, now in its fifth year, is supported by UA’s College of Arts and Sciences and the departments of anthropology, biological sciences, geological sciences, philosophy and psychology.

The ALLELE lecture series is part of UA’s College of Arts and Sciences, the University’s largest division and the largest liberal arts college in the state. Students from the College have won numerous national awards including Rhodes Scholarships, Goldwater Scholarships and memberships on the USA Today Academic All American Team.