Abstract
This research investigated whether and how young women used gossip strategies to win opportunities for themselves when facing physically attractive potential romantic competitors. After selecting female face images through the pilot study, the formal study (N = 190) used a one-factor between-subject design to examine the effect of potential competitors’ physical attractiveness on women’s gossip tendencies and explore the mediating role of romantic jealousy and the moderating role of self-esteem. Our results suggested that when facing physically attractive potential competitors, young women experienced higher levels of romantic jealousy and were thus more likely to transmit negative information that could harm potential competitors’ sexual reputations to their friends. Furthermore, women with low self-esteem were more likely to experience higher levels of romantic jealousy and were more likely to transmit negative information to their friends. We also discuss the implications and limitations of this study, as well as directions for future studies.
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The data and materials that support the findings of this study are available in the Open Science Framework at https://osf.io/r2xu3/?view_only=23312865f4854ba9898daa665af70704.
Notes
Notably, we acknowledge that physical attractiveness not only includes facial attractiveness but also includes other factors (e.g., voice attractiveness, BMI; Jaeger, 2019). However, among these factors, facial attractiveness matters greatly. Thornhill and Grammer (1999) have suggested that women’s physical attractiveness in face could signal hormonal and perhaps developmental health. Reynolds et al. (2018) also used facial attractiveness to partly represent physical attractiveness. Therefore, we used face images as materials in our present study.
Notably, there were no significant differences in rating scores between the three face images in each attractiveness group.
To avoid suspicion, romantic jealousy was measured along with several other emotions, including happiness, anger, and sadness.
A material check (N = 35) is conducted before the formal study, and the results suggested that people would judge women with these three traits more negatively compared with the neutral situation, ps < 0.001.
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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by Yijia Dong, and the first draft of the manuscript was written by Yijia Dong. The draft of the manuscript was then revised under the supervision of Wenqi Li and Yu Kou. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Dong, Y., Li, W. & Kou, Y. Physical Attractiveness of Potential Competitors Influences Women’s Gossip: Effects of Romantic Jealousy and Self-Esteem. Evolutionary Psychological Science 9, 407–418 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40806-023-00371-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40806-023-00371-2