Ever been so jealous you couldn’t see straight? Well, women who’ve experienced this powerful emotion may need to have their vision checked, according to study findings by researchers at the University of Delaware in Newark and published in the journal Emotion.

During the study, researchers seated romantically involved heterosexual couples close to each other but at different computers. Scientists instructed the women to note landscape images as assorted pictures—some of them graphic—flashed across their monitors. As the women did this, researchers told the male partners to score the appeal of landscapes appearing on their screens.

After a while, researchers announced that the men would look at images of single women and rate them.

Scientists noted that after this announcement, the women’s ability to point out the landscapes became disrupted because they were increasingly distracted by the unpleasant images they saw on their computer screens.

Study authors Steven Most and Jean-Philippe Laurenceau, psychology professors at the University of Delaware, called the response “emotion-induced blindness.”

Researchers said future experiments are needed to evaluate whether men would exhibit the same response.

Read this for more about how jealousy may trigger domestic abuse in relationships.