Based on the research of Tracy Vaillancourt at the University of Ottawa.
Friendship Jealousy Test (SMFJS)
Do you feel jealous when friends connect with others online?
Developed by Dr. Tracy Vaillancourt and colleagues at the University of Ottawa in 2024, the Social Media Friendship Jealousy Scale (SMFJS) examines how people react when they see their friends socializing with others online.
Whether noticing a close friend post photos with someone else or seeing a birthday post about another friend, social platforms can trigger complex feelings of comparison, exclusion, and protective concern.
How strongly do digital cues affect your sense of friendship security? To take the test, enter your input below.
Question 1 of 7
I get jealous if my friend re-posts a mutual friend's post.
| Disagree | Agree |
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Friendships play a crucial role in our emotional wellbeing and social belonging, but modern digital platforms have fundamentally changed how we witness our friends' broader social lives. In 2024, Dr. Tracy Vaillancourt and a team of researchers developed the Social Media Friendship Jealousy Scale (SMFJS) to study how visible online interactions influence interpersonal feelings. While romantic jealousy has long received substantial scientific attention, friendship jealousy—specifically when triggered by visible posts, tags, photos, and public interactions across digital feeds—presents unique psychological dynamics. The SMFJS was created to capture these specific emotional reactions in an increasingly connected world.
The SMFJS is a unidimensional instrument that measures a single unified construct: friendship jealousy in response to social media cues. In daily life, this construct captures feelings of unease, hurt, or protective rivalry when viewing a valued friend engaging with other people online. Typical examples include seeing a friend share photos or videos with someone else, noticing a birthday post about another friend, or observing them interact warmly with another peer without tagging or including you. These digital cues can sometimes be perceived as subtle signs of potential social displacement, stirring natural feelings of jealousy.
Experiencing jealousy within a valued friendship is an ordinary human emotion rather than an inherent character flaw or sign of possessiveness. From evolutionary and psychological perspectives, jealousy can draw attention to a perceived threat to a meaningful bond. However, an online post shows only part of an interaction, so it may leave room for uncertain interpretations. A higher score indicates that online friend activities frequently evoke feelings of jealousy, whereas a lower score suggests that digital interactions rarely disturb your personal sense of friendship security. Friendship loyalty concerns how people treat one another; this scale asks about your reaction to online cues.
In their published validation studies, Vaillancourt and colleagues administered the SMFJS across several adult cohorts, including an initial sample of 491 North American adults aged 24 to 35. The researchers observed that social media friendship jealousy correlates meaningfully with overall social media engagement, general trait jealousy, friendship quality, and certain internalizing symptoms. Importantly, these published patterns represent statistical associations across groups rather than individual predictions. The measure captures self-reported emotional reactions to specific digital scenarios rather than objective proof of a friend's disloyalty or interpersonal neglect. It does not assess broader attachment patterns.
The chart also shows a reference marker calculated from Study 1 of the published research. That sample included 491 social-media-using adults aged 24 to 35 in Canada and the United States. Their seven-item mean was 11.87 on the original 1–5 likelihood scale, equivalent to a mean of about 1.70 per item. The marker offers context for your responses alongside that specific study sample. These comparison markers are estimates based on published sample data, not validated norms for everyone. They are not clinical cutoffs, and differences in age, culture, and social media habits may affect how people answer.
This online self-assessment is designed solely for educational, personal, and self-reflective purposes. It does not provide psychological advice, clinical diagnosis, or a definitive evaluation of your interpersonal relationships. This test is based on the published Social Media Friendship Jealousy Scale (SMFJS) and is not affiliated with Dr. Tracy Vaillancourt, her co-authors, or their respective academic institutions. Use your results as an engaging opportunity to reflect on your digital boundaries, communication habits, and emotional responses when navigating social media with close friends.
References
- Fenici, M. & Garofoli, D. (2019). Cultural evolutionary psychology is still evolutionary psychology. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 42.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does the Friendship Jealousy Test measure across its items?
It measures how likely you are to feel jealous in seven specific social-media situations involving a friend and other people.
What does the Friendship Jealousy Test result provide to takers?
The result summarizes your self-reported reactions to those online cues. It does not tell you whether a friend has acted disloyally.
Who created the research behind the Social Media Friendship Jealousy Scale?
The test is based on 2024 research by Dr. Tracy Vaillancourt and colleagues at the University of Ottawa.
Can the Friendship Jealousy Test provide a formal psychological diagnosis?
No. It is an educational self-report measure, not a diagnosis or assessment of a friend's intentions.
How should respondents answer the Friendship Jealousy Test for accuracy?
Think of a valued friend and answer according to how you would usually feel in each online situation.
Why Use This Test?
1. Free and instant. This test is completely free to take with no registration or email required, and your results appear immediately upon completion.
2. Research-grounded. Built on the Social Media Friendship Jealousy Scale developed by Dr. Tracy Vaillancourt and colleagues, the test uses peer-reviewed findings to explore digital friendship dynamics.
3. What your scores mean. Receive clear, plain-language feedback on your responses along with context on how online social cues influence feelings of friendship security.