ABSTRACT
A compelling rationale for investigating racially diverse samples within the same nation can be found in the observation of cross-cultural variation in the magnitude of the gender differences in infidelity evoking the most distress. Mate selection criteria have been logically and empirically linked to asymmetries among men and women in subjective distress to emotional and sexual infidelity. An evolutionary perspective has also been validated with the discovery of cross-cultural evidence for the asymmetries among men and women in subjective distress to emotional and sexual infidelity. A parallel interest in an evolutionary perspective toward human dating and mating, and related social behavior, has also emerged. Extending the heuristic value of an evolutionary perspective could result from continuing to develop multi-method testing regimes to investigate a variety of participant responses to violations-of-trust. Consistent with an evolutionary perspective, more women than men were distressed by the emotional component, and more men than women were distressed by the sexual component, of the combined infidelity.
