Journal article
Integrating molecular genetics and evolutionary psychology: Sexual jealousy and the androgen receptor (AR) gene
Personality and Individual Differences, Vol.120, pp.276-282
2018
Abstract
Integrating evolutionary psychological and molecular genetic research may increase our knowledge of the psychological correlates of specific genes, as well as enhance evolutionary psychology's ability to explain individual differences. We tested the hypothesis that men's sexual jealousy mechanisms functionally calibrate their psychological output according to genetic variation at the androgen receptor locus. Mated men (N = 103) provided buccal cell samples for genotype fragment analysis and completed inventories assessing their sexually jealous cognitions and emotions. Results indicated that men with longer sequences of CAG codon repeats at the androgen receptor locus were more likely to perceive ambiguous social and environmental cues as indicative of their mates' infidelity, and experienced greater emotional upset in response to these cues. These results contribute to a growing body of research linking polymorphism at the AR locus to individual differences in psychology, and, to our knowledge, provide the first evidence pointing toward the heritability of sexual jealousy. Our discussion centers on whether the heritability of psychological differences implies direct genetic influences on the neurobiological substrate, or reflects functionally calibrated output from sex-typical and species-typical mechanisms. We conclude by describing how future research can more clearly differentiate between these alternative genetic models.
Details
- Title
- Integrating molecular genetics and evolutionary psychology: Sexual jealousy and the androgen receptor (AR) gene
- Authors/Creators
- D.M.G. Lewis (Author/Creator) - Murdoch UniversityL. Al-Shawaf (Author/Creator) - Bilkent UniversityM.C. Janiak (Author/Creator) - Rutgers, The State University of New JerseyS.P. Akunebu (Author/Creator) - St. Edward's University
- Publication Details
- Personality and Individual Differences, Vol.120, pp.276-282
- Publisher
- Elsevier
- Identifiers
- 991005543124907891
- Copyright
- © 2016 Elsevier Ltd.
- Murdoch Affiliation
- School of Psychology and Exercise Science
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Journal article
Metrics
125 Record Views
InCites Highlights
These are selected metrics from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool, related to this output
- Collaboration types
- Domestic collaboration
- International collaboration
- Citation topics
- 6 Social Sciences
- 6.73 Social Psychology
- 6.73.1369 Evolutionary Psychology
- Web Of Science research areas
- Psychology, Social
- ESI research areas
- Psychiatry/Psychology