The green-eyed monster strikes! Even in jealousy, there is a striking difference between men and women. Men would typically deal with questions about the sexual issues of an affair while women would ask about the emotional infidelity.

Published in the journal "Personality and Individual Differences", a study utilized the popular reality TV show "Cheaters" to explore an issue as old as man, jealousy-fuelled interrogations of infidelity, Today Health reports.

A weekly syndicated hidden camera reality television series, "Cheaters" conducts an investigation headed by the "Cheaters Detective Agency". The investigators trail people who are suspected of committing adultery, or cheating on their partners.

Emotional segment of the show focuses on the confrontation that often takes place in public with both the complainant and host seeking an explanation from the suspect for their behaviour. This encounter includes verbal tussle and at times, violence erupts between the parties.

Around 102 cases involved in a love triangle were viewed. The student coders analyzed whether the victims' comments were founded on sexual jealousy (Was she/he better in bed than me? How many times did you have sex with her/him?) or emotional jealousy (Do you love him/her? Who do you love more?).

The study showed that when the men were the victims of infidelity, 57% of questions on the cheating partner focused on the sexual aspects of the affair while only around 29% of women dealt with the intimate details. When the ladies were the victims, 71% of their questions focused on the emotional side of their partner's fling, compared to 43% of men's inquiries.

"Relative to women, men are more distressed by sexual infidelity, and women are more upset over emotional infidelity, relative to men," says study author Barry X. Kuhle, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Scranton in Scranton, Penn.

"Modern men have inherited an evolved wisdom from a long line of ancestral men who could never be 100 percent certain that a child was actually theirs." according to Kuhle.

Women, on the other hand, were more preoccupied with their partner's emotional involvement of time, attention, protection and commitment to the other woman. Scrutinizing about the depth of the emotional involvement in the affair would enable a woman to gauge the harm done on the relationship and the assault to her claim to her man's heart.