Why do girls like to make guys jealous?

I'm a guy and I've experienced this first hand. I was in a relationship for 6 years and intentional jealousy helped end the relationship. There are two different types of jealousy that I have come to understand.

The first is accidental jealousy. Where a man or a woman in the relationship does not instigate the jealousy.
Example, some one compliments your partner and you feel jealous. The fact is your partner is receiving an abundant amount of attention from someone of the opposite sex. This may make a person feel jealous. In the end the person who was being complimented would be flattered and think nothing more and it may make them feel good to see their partner a little jealous.

The second type of jealousy is intentional or when one person in the relationship tries to make there partner jealous on purpose.
Example, a guy or girl whom your partner loathes walks into the room and you approach them and flirt with them. The intention is to make your partner jealous and to hurt them. This is narcissistic and in some cases sadistic. Believe it or not this is an abusive relationship.

Making your partner jealous is not the way to find out if they have feelings for you or not. I'm a man and when I notice a woman trying to make me jealous I understand they are trying to hurt my feelings to spark an emotion from me.

That hurts. And believe it or not, it doesn't make me feel any stronger for them. My feelings are probably less if anything.

The best way to find out someone's true feelings is to ask them. Let them know that you want to know the truth. Be prepared to be honest yourself, because the minute your partner thinks you are hiding something they will become defensive as well and the truth will remain a mystery.

In the end, it might make someone jealous to see their partner being hit on by someone else.

But when you hear a reply from your partner like:

"No thank you. I'm with my man," or

"No thank you. I'm all ready accompanying the most beautiful woman tonight"

That type of answer makes that little bit of accidental jealousy all worth it.

I know that a lot of my 'girl' friends do this, and usually they just do it because they like the feeling of a guy caring that she's with another man. They usually think that a guy getting jealous over another guy because they are with them makes them feel better about themselves somehow. I guess they like the feeling of a guy stressing on about her. Stupid, and it's not a good thing to do.

Well, first of all, guys do this too. I don't know if it's for the same reasons, but the guy I'm going out with told me that when he wanted to see if I liked him he tried to make me jealous to see what my feelings were. Though since I'm not a jealous person it just made me sad. So maybe women do it to gauge the guy's feeling as well

Some girls like to make guys jealous because it makes them feel good about themselves. Others do it because they want to actively destroy a relationship (if there is any) between two or more men (e. G Flirting with your boyfriends brother/best-friend). Might seem silly, but a lot of guys and girls choose their partner over their friends

I'm truly not a jealous person but I had a guy friend who would intentionally bring girls over and kiss them and mess around with them when I was outside with my boyfriend. I didn't get jealous because I think it's very immature and it did end our friendship. Men as well as Women do that. It's so stupid.

For personal gratification, to show that they still have what it takes, to show that they are good enough, to see if that guy is interested or still is interested in her.

The only time I've ever tried to make a guy jealous was when I liked him and I wanted to see if the feelings were mutual. I figured if whatever I did bothered him enough for him to be jealous, that it was the sign I needed to know.

I don't do that so I'm not sure. Maybe to get attention and/or proof that the guy likes her?