By Charlotte Webster-
The trait of Jealousy can be genetic , but is also influenced by psychological and environmental issues, according to researchers.
Jealousy is said to have its deep historical connections of biological reproduction and its association with family ties and the break of family ties due to cheating. its emotions are intense and can pass from one generation to the other, even when it has no direct connection with its original cause of reproductive ties
Although those experiencing the jealousy are often aware of it, the actual reasons for the envy are buried in individual unconsciousness and disguised by subjectively rational explanations in the subconscious mind. Jealousy is often linked with an excessive value of something possessed by someone else, and the wish that the roles could reserved for the benefit of the jealous one.
Jealousy is said by researchers to be at least 29% heritable, with non-shared environmental influences explained the remaining variance. Which means environmental factors play are larger role, but both are somewhat related to each other.
Researchers say the roots of jealousy has its roots in the fear of men of a partner sleeping with or falling in love with a stranger, and having a child for another man.
Some scientists say the link lies in reproductory concerns that some parents cannot be certain that they are the biological parent of their child, making them naturally more perturbed at the thought of sexual cheating than they are about emotional infidelity. This is mainly because it jeopardises the successful transmission of their genes. This concern goes into the genes down the line.
The strong emotions of worry associated with feeling your partner may produce a child for another man can go down the genes. Men and women who have experienced very high levels of emotions over the years leading up to conception can run the risk of being inherited by their offspring.
Women, though relatively less perturbed by the idea that their partner may have been sleeping around, are nevertheless dependent on their mate for their survival and that of their offspring.
The National Survey Of Sexual Attitudes revealed that 82% of men and 76% of women reported more than one lifetime partner, with more than a third of men and almost a fifth of women clocking up 10 or more times. Some 31% of men and 21% of women said they had started a new relationship in the previous year, with 15% of men and 9% of women seeing more than one person at the same time.
Though genes appear to play a part in jealousy, the Swedish results also show that the kinds of things that happen to us in our lives – the way we’re brought up, the people we’re around, the events we experience – are far more important. Only one third of the variation in jealousy seemed to have a genetic origin, so the rest must have been down to environmental differences.
The genetic connection to jealousy arises from decades of research which confirms that strong feelings of emotions we experience for prolonged periods of time can eventually be inherited by our offspring. This is separate from the fact that all human beings can feel strong emotions due to various circumstances and experiences in their lives.
Individuals who spend too long in their lives being jealous of others can eventually produce offspring with a jealous tendency from the beginning, which can then also be influenced by environmental factors. The closer the expression of jealousy by a parent, especially the mother, to the conception of a child, the higher the intensity of the genetic component of jealousy inherited.
The concept of relevant social circle explains jealousy and how it develops in people and can be passed down the genes.
Common Factors
Researchers have found that among individuals who have had the same privileges, opportunities, disadvantages, and status, jealousy is higher than among those who have had different experiences. So individuals who share similar background and history are more likely to be jealous of people of their kind than of others.
Individuals from a Hispanic background, black or Asian background for example, are more likely to be jealous of other people from that same background or neighbourhood than of someone or a different group of people whom they perceive to be far more privileged, and whose accomplishments they feel are out of their reach.
The success they can witness in the other person with whom they can identify with more, is one they would wish for themselves, rather than the other. This jealousy is especially potent if they actually perceived the other person to have been inferior to them before the sudden elevation of status , opportunity or wealth.
The nature of jealousy is a bit different but related when it comes to former sexual partners. The fact another man is now with your former partner evokes the feeling of wrath and inadequacy because the mind tells one they have lost someone special to someone better than them. Those thought patterns assume they considered them to be special, but in other cases, jealousy could simply be the fact someone else now occupies the position they once had.
Jealousy can also apply to a feeling of inferiority that someone else possesses something valuable that is inaccessible to the jealous individual.
In short, the most honest people are and the less they cheat, the less likely they are to pass on very strong and dangerous genetic levels of jealousy.