Editing Infidelity (section)

===Sexual orientation===
Evolutionary researchers have suggested that humans have innate mechanisms{{define|date=December 2018}} that contribute to why they become sexually jealous, this is especially true for certain types of infidelity.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Harris |first1=Christine R. |title=The Evolution of Jealousy: Did men and women, facing different selective pressures, evolve different "brands" of jealousy? Recent evidence suggests not |journal=American Scientist |date=2004 |volume=92 |issue=1 |pages=62–71 |doi=10.1511/2004.1.62 |jstor=27858334 }}</ref> It has been hypothesized that heterosexual men have developed an innate psychological mechanism that responds to the threat of sexual infidelity more than emotional infidelity, and vice versa for heterosexual women<ref name="Schmitt, D. P. 2005"/> because potential [[cuckoldry]] is more detrimental to the male, who could potentially invest in offspring of another male, while for females emotional infidelity is more worrisome because they could lose the parental investment to another woman's offspring, therefore affecting their chances of survival.<ref name="Schmitt, D. P. 2005"/> However, more recent studies suggest that increasingly both men and women would find emotional infidelity psychologically worse.<ref name="Harris, C. R. 2002">{{cite journal | last1 = Harris | first1 = C. R. | year = 2002 | title = Sexual and romantic jealousy in heterosexual and homosexual adults | journal = Psychological Science | volume = 13 | issue = 1| pages = 7–12 | doi=10.1111/1467-9280.00402 | pmid=11892782| s2cid = 18815461 }}</ref>

Symons (1979) determined that sexual jealousy is the major reason that many homosexual men are unsuccessful in maintaining monogamous relationships<ref name="Harris, C. R. 2002"/> and suggests that all men are innately disposed to want sexual variation, with the difference between heterosexual and homosexual men being that homosexual men can find willing partners more often for casual sex, and thus satisfy this innate desire for sexual variety.<ref name="Harris, C. R. 2002"/> However, according to this view, all men can be "hard wired" to be sexually jealous, and therefore [[gay men]] could be more upset by sexual infidelity than by emotional infidelity, and that lesbians could be more upset by emotional infidelity than sexual.<ref name="Harris, C. R. 2002"/> Recent studies suggest that it may not be an innate mechanism, rather depends on the importance placed on sexual exclusivity. Peplau and Cochran (1983) found that sexual exclusivity was much more important to heterosexual men and women compared to homosexual men and women. This theory suggests that it is not sexuality that may lead to differences but that people are prone to jealousy in domains that are especially important to them.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Salovey |first1=Peter |title=The Psychology of Jealousy and Envy |date=1991 |publisher=Guilford Press |isbn=978-0-89862-555-4 |pages=271–286 }}</ref> Barah and Lipton argue that heterosexual couples may cheat just as much as homosexual relationships.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Myth of Monogamy: Fidelity and Infidelity in Animals and People |last=Barash & Lipton|first=D.P. & J.E.|publisher=Henry Holt|year=2001|location=New York}}{{page needed|date=October 2021}}</ref>

Harris (2002) tested these hypotheses among 210 individuals: 48 homosexual women, 50 homosexual men, 40 heterosexual women, and 49 heterosexual men.<ref name="Harris, C. R. 2002"/> Results found that more heterosexual than homosexual individuals picked sexual infidelity as worse than emotional infidelity, with heterosexual men being the highest, and that when forced to choose, gay men overwhelmingly predicted emotional infidelity would be more troubling than sexual infidelity.<ref name="Harris, C. R. 2002"/> These findings contradict Symons (1979) suggestion that there would be no gender difference in predicted responses to infidelity by sexual orientation.<ref name="Harris, C. R. 2002"/> Blow and Bartlett (2005) suggest that even though sex outside of a homosexual relationship might be seen as more acceptable in some relationships, the consequences of infidelity do not occur without pain or jealousy.<ref name=BlowHartnett05/>

Heterosexuals rated emotional and sexual infidelity as more emotionally distressing than did lesbian and gay individuals. Sex and sexual orientation differences emerged regarding the degree to which specific emotions were reported in response to sexual and emotional infidelity.  Few researchers have explored the influence of sexual orientation on which type of infidelity is viewed as more distressing.<ref name="Leeker12">{{cite journal|year=2012|title=Effects of sex, sexual orientation, infidelity expectations, and love on distress related to emotional and sexual infidelity|journal=Journal of Marital and Family Therapy|volume=40|issue=1|pages=68–91|doi=10.1111/j.1752-0606.2012.00331.x|pmid=25059413|hdl-access=free|author1-last=Leeker|author1-first=O.|author2-last=Carlozzi|author2-first=A.|hdl=11244/7190}}</ref>

Summarizing the findings from these studies, heterosexual men seem to be more distressed by sexual infidelity than heterosexual women, lesbian women, and gay men.<ref name="Leeker12" /> These latter three groups seem more responsible for this difference by reporting similarly higher levels of distress toward emotional infidelity than heterosexual men.<ref name="Leeker12" /> However, within-sex analyses reveal that heterosexual men tend to rate emotional infidelity as more distressing than sexual infidelity.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/media-spotlight/201404/after-infidelity|title=After Infidelity|website=Psychology Today|access-date=2017-11-09}}</ref>