Study: Facebook Fosters Jealousy

Posted 08/10/2009 at 9:26am | by Paul Lilly

5

Comments

Print

If your significant other refuses to add you as a friend on his/her Facebook page, then maybe you have cause for concern over what personal updates are being posted. But does the social networking site really bring out jealously in romantically involved couples?

A team of Canadian researchers set out to answer that question by asking three hundred and eight undergraduate students to fill out a survey.

"Facebook is a rapidly expanding phenomenon that is changing the nature of social relationships. Anecdotal evidence, including information described in the popular media, suggests that Facebook may be responsible for creating jealously and suspicion in romantic relationships," the researchers stated (PDF).

Participants reported spending an average of just under 39 minutes on Facebook each day and had between 25 and 1,000 Facebook friends. Nearly 75 percent said they were at least somewhat likely to add previous romantic or sexual partners as friends, and 92 percent said their partner was at least somewhat likely to add Facebook friends who they do not know.

"Our results suggest that Facebook may expose an individual to potentially jealously-provoking information about their partner, which creates a feedback loop whereby heightened jealousy leads to increased surveillance of a partner's Facebook page," the researchers concluded. "Persistent surveillance results in further exposer to jealous-provoking information."

Image Credit: escribiryleer.files.wordpress.com