Women really can be blinded by jealousy

Women really can be 'blinded by jealousy' according to an academic study of their behaviour...

Couple - News - Marie Claire
Couple - News - Marie Claire
(Image credit: Rex Features)

Women really can be 'blinded by jealousy' according to an academic study of their behaviour...

It turns out jealousy really is ‘blinding,' according to a study by two psychology professors from the University of Delaware.

Steven Most and Jean-Philippe Laurenceau found that women who were made to feel jealous were so distracted by unpleasant and emotional images, they became unable to spot targets they were trying to find.

The study tested heterosexual couples who were asked to sit near each other at separate computers. The woman was asked to detect certain images, such as photos of landscapes, as a rapid stream of photos appeared on her screen.

The men were at first asked to rate the attractiveness of similar landscapes but, midway through, they were asked to rate the attractiveness of single women. At the end, the women were asked how they felt about their partner rating another woman's attractiveness.

The women who felt jealousy had a harder time spotting the images of landscapes when their significant others were looking at and rating pictures of other women than the women who did not feel jealousy.

The researchers concluded that they suffered from a form of ‘emotion-induced blindness'.

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