Who knew that social networking sites, such as Facebook could affect not only our social status, but also our emotional status? A new study indicates that spending time on Facebook can lead to jealously toward romantic partners.

There’s a twist: Those who show signs of jealously and vulnerability from social networking sites are students with the high GPAs.

This information comes from a study by Denise Friedman at Roanoke College in Salem, Virginia.

High-achieving students were asked to predict their responses to scenarios-such as their partner accepting a friend request from the opposite sex or seeing a post on their partner’s wall. Based on their answers, Friedman concludes, “Students with higher GPAs are often more conscientious, show greater self-control and tend to be perfectionists. The perceived infidelity likely upsets their attempts at perfection across the board.”

The researchers also tested the effect of emoticons, such as symbols of smiley or winking faces. As a result, the test determined that adding a winking emoticon had no effect on women’s jealously level but it caused jealously among the men.

“Evolutionary work suggests men are more jealous of sexual infidelity, while women are more jealous of emotional infidelity,” says Friedman.

Thanks to Zuckerberg, we are able to monitor our romantic partner’s activity on a day to day basis. We click their page, see a wall post from the opposite sex and suddenly enter “freak-out mode.”

Report by MyNorthwest.com intern Hannah Kadletz