Can jealousy be detected as a unique pattern of recordable facial expressions by the FaceReader, and thus do such expressions manifest differently between sexes upon exposure to jealousy – evoking Snapchat messages?”

Abstract

The first aim of this current research was to identify the emotional components that make up jealousy. To do so, the Noldus FaceReader was used to record the activations of the basic emotions, when participants were presented with both emotional and sexual infidelity revealing Snapchat messages. The second aim of the study was to determine if sex differences, in response to sexual and emotional infidelity revealing Snapchat messages, can be measured in the activations of basic emotions by the Noldus FaceReader. Participants viewed two messages from a hypothetical romantic rival (one emotional and one sexual) and two neutral messages from their hypothetical partners’ friend. The FaceReader was used to record the activations of the basic emotions, for the 20 seconds in which they viewed each message. Results indicated that the FaceReader was unable to detect a unique pattern of emotional facial expression for jealousy. It was also unable to indicate a significant difference between males and females and message type. Therefore, it could be argued that jealousy does not result in an expressional response. Instead, future research should investigate the jealousy as a behavioural response.