Judgements of Men who Perpetrate Psychological Partner Aggression: The role of Sexual Jealousy and Sociosexual Orientation

Previous research has suggested that sexual jealousy and sociosexual orientation predict the support of ideologies that restrict women’s sexuality as a function of indirect mate-guarding. However, little is known whether these individual-level psychological factors are associated with condoning judgements of men who perpetrate partner aggression against their female partners. Therefore, the purpose of this research was to investigate whether sexual jealousy and sociosexual orientation predict condoning judgements of men who perpetrate psychological partner aggression against a female partner. With a convenience sample (n = 101) of most students (71%), an online survey was conducted, which included the Multidimensional Jealousy Scale (MJS), the Revised Sociosexual Orientation Inventory (SOI-R), two scenarios displaying psychological aggression and questions about the judgement of the male perpetrator within the scenarios. The results demonstrated that there was no correlation between MJS, SOI and global judgements of the perpetrator. Based on this study's results, sociosexual orientation and sexual jealousy are not linked to lenient judgements of a perpetrator who conducts partner aggression. It is recommended that future research should focus on verifying the results with a more heterogeneous sample and different scenarios displaying different types of psychological aggression as well as other forms of aggression (physical, sexual, and cyber).