Naive Theories of Emotional Experience: Jealousy

Italian subjects (N=854) conceptualised the reactions elicited by jealousy-eliciting events as consisting of various emotional and behavioural responses. They instead mentioned regulated, strategic responses of a 'rational' nature as adequate behaviour in such situations. Several specific concepts in subjects' naive theories varied as a function of the event's subjective seriousness rather than of subjects' age and sex; self-serving biases were observed too. Subjects had a rich emotional knowledge and conceptualized the emotional experience as a complex, dynamic reaction that unfolds in time, highly influenced by individual and situational factors.