How does jealousy work?

[CuriousSim]

I am curious how jealousy works. I understand that there's some sort of attribute that Sims have, that can make them jealous, but I was wondering how jealousy plays out in general among sims?
The main things I want to know are:

1. Does the sex of the Sims matter?
If you have a significant Sim and you have other Sims visit your household, does it matter if the person is a good friend, and the same sex as you, or will attention from other Sims, male and female, affect the relationship?

2. Do significant Sims, when they are in a relationship with you, and don't specifically possess a jealous trait get jealous of attention by other Sims?

3. If a good friend of the opposite sex is hanging out with you, and another good friend of the opposite sex shows up at the door, is it better to leave the person at the door, letting that person in, or does it make no difference?

4. Can a Sim that's not a romantic interest, but more than a friend feel jealous or uncomfortable around other Sims?

3. If Sims do get jealous, does it need to be "Romantic Interactions", or can friendly conversation tick them off, under some circumstances?

Here are a couple of scenarios, for consideration:

Scenario 1:
I moved in a Sim, to Willow Creek. I got him a job as an Astronaut. Travis became his best friend. One time I noticed that he would sometimes hang out at my house for nearly the entire day. One time, I decided to play as him, so he could make himself useful at my house. I was going to have him repair my stereo. I noticed that he was actually skipping work, to hang out. I have since learned that this isn't a problem. Long story short, I began checking out other Sim households & when they happened to be in my neighborhood, I would switch, so they could repair things that I left out on my lawn, and water plants while I was away.

One time, when I returned to my original Sim, I noticed I had a Lovebird girl friend. She started showing up at my house. I began incorporating her into my Sim's life. Well, I noticed that Liberty Lee was in the same career as me. The career panel mentioned that getting along with coworkers helped performance. I began talking to her, when I visited the library. She also began visiting my house. When my computer generated interest was visiting, and Liberty showed up, it seemed like my Lovebird Interest (LBI) would leave early. Also the relationship started declining. I am wondering if the relationship with Liberty is harming the other relationship, or if I just need to put more effort into my LBI?

Basically, I'm wondering if I can keep and maintain my good relationship with Liberty, and remain in good standing with my computer generated lovebird.

Scenario 2:

Bella Goth is a good friend, in Oasis Springs. The mail carrier is also a good friend. She seems very interested in my Sim. My Sim just finished eating a meal with Bella, and Bella is dancing to his stereo. As he is chatting with Bella, the mail carrier shows up at my door. If I let her in, will there be any negative side effects? Also, do Sims ever get frustrated & lose interest if a friendship level plateaus, and is not upgraded?

Just wondering.

[tjtemple]

I've moved a jealous Sim into my Immortal Dynasty house as a helper and it's a real pain.  He is constantly tense when his GF Cassandra Goth isn't around  . 

Perhaps it would be fun in a secure relationship within a household, but it's no fun in this scenario.  Can't wait for grim to come and take him off my hands 

[oshizu]

@tjtemple
I've never played the Jealous trait.
Laughed at the comment that he just moved and you're already itching for his departure.
Does the Carefree trait help at all? Just wondering.

[tjtemple]

He's just awful @oshizu. My most disliked Sim to date. I guess carefree would help but I'm not spending any valuable reward  points on him. I just keep him in an annexe and send him fishing! He has pollinated the Goth household now, so he has some uses!

[oshizu]

Lol, not allowed in the main house, eh?
I can't imagine playing a jealous pollinator...he will be emotionally very busy!

[JudesSims]

I quite enjoyed my "Jealous Ellis" in my Careers challenge. He wasn't too badly affected...only became upset a few times. Usually while he was at work. He really is a sweet sim for the most part.

[Shewolf13]

Yeah, one of my favorite Sims has the jealous trait. While the tense moodlet can be annoying, he's actually a sweet Sim and he autonomously interacts with both wife and his son all the time ^^ Makes for some great story telling ^^

[DarkWalker]

Keep in mind that jealousy was revamped near the end of 2015, so old explanations aren't going to be accurate. It's also a fairly complex system (just a search for tunings with Jealous in the name returned over a hundred files).

You can find an official EA post about the new jealousy system at https://www.thesims.com/en_GB/news/jealous .

[Playalot]

Personally I love the jealous trait and give it to either all my sims or their partners. Can't help it... love the drama and the negative traits! 

[CuriousSim]

Just wondering: Do your significant Sims ever get angry, if you don't escalate a relationship, or is there a possible explanation that I'm missing here?

My Sim has been hanging around the Museum a lot. Most of his friends go to the museum anyway, but there are less drop-in visits to deal with. Yesterday, he saw his girlfriend at the museum. He decided to talk to her. It was a pleasant conversation, but she became tense. Then she eventually became angry. I made him do something else, so as not to provoke her further. I couldn't find any cause to her anger. the next thing she did was find a mirror & talk herself down. The next time I saw her, the pink bar was at about a little over half, compared to a nearly full pink bar previously. Is there something that my Sim missed?

[Shewolf13]

@CuriousSim

Did your Sim autonomously flirt with anyone?  Or had it been awhile since they had seen each other?  The pink bar decays just like the green bar over time. So if they haven't done any romantic interactions, it will decay.  That can be further exacerbated by negative emotions.  If a Sim is tense, doing romantic interactions can give a negative hit.

[CuriousSim]

@Shewolf13

For this Sim, I rarely see random romantic interactions, aside from he will often want to use "Enchanting Introduction" on strangers. One time, he saw the new community gardener & before I knew it, he opened with an Enchanting Introduction & instantly got himself a pink bar, with him. In this case, no flirts were used. I put a grill on the second floor, and he was grilling hot dogs, when I saw his girlfriend looking at a painting. I had him stop making hotdogs, to say hi. She started out in a fine mood, moved to tense, and then to angry. Her pink bar was still at about 90%, or so. I had only chosen standard interactions, before electing to resume making the hot dogs.

I saw her the next day at the gym, and the pink bar was down to around 65% or so. As mentioned, she went to the mirror, then went about her business. If she had any needs to take care of, they weren't readily apparent.

[Shewolf13]

@CuriousSim

The Enchanting Introduction is counted as romantic, so it might be enough to set off a negative hit for his significant other if there were there.

Yeah, sounds like it was time decay.  Believe it or not, without any interactions and if you were only doing normal, friendly interactions, the bar can drop quickly.  I haven't done a timer to see in my own games, but if I remember right, when doing the challenge from the tournament last year where you had to get lovebirds with as many Sims as possible, the bar went down quickly without any maintenance interactions.  Again, I don't have an exact time-frame, so sorry about that.  But that sounds like what i might be.  If they don't have some form of romantic interactions, the bars do take a hit.  And if she had needs to take care of (if she was tense, might have been her fun need), then sometimes interactions can backfire.

[CuriousSim]

Well interesting. It doesn't seem to explain how she got angry so quickly, unless she was hungry, or something. After she went to the mirror to calm down, she looked at other things at the museum, then left. She didn't dash to the facilities, or do anything else unusual. Previously, I probably saw her every few days, but the bar usually stayed around 90%, since my Sim usually charged it to 100%, whenever he saw her.

[Shewolf13]

Hm, could be she had angry under the tense moodlet for whatever reason.  Work can give angry moodlet, maybe she had interaction with another Sim previously and it was still there.  That's part of the problem with Sims you don't control: You can't tell what moodlets are buried beneath their current one. Hm... yeah, sounds like the angry moodlet did some damage to the relationship.