WEDNESDAY, Aug. 13 (HealthDay News) -- Even infidelity has its
price, new research suggests.
Would-be participants in an extramarital affair tend to
calculate both the economic and biological benefits beforehand,
researchers from the University of New Hampshire (UNH) and Bryant
University report.
But factors that go into the decision differ slightly between
men and women, said study author Bruce Elmslie, an economics
professor at UNH.
Women weigh factors including financial stability, education and
whether the man is a good candidate to father a child, Elmslie
wrote in a university news release.
"These factors do not come into play for men who, overall, are 7 percent more likely to cheat than women," he added. "The likelihood of a man having had an affair increases with age, and reaches a peak when a man is about 55 years old. It then decreases with age. For women, the peak is 45 years old."
"The benefits of female infidelity reduce after the age of 40 because a woman would no longer benefit in terms of improved gene quality from the affair," he said. "Men also experience a reduction of sperm quality around the age of 45, but the reproductive benefits of an affair extend further into a man's lifetime than a woman's."
The study also found:
- Upper-class women are 8 percent more likely to cheat than other
women, while men are equally likely to cheat among all economic
classes.
- Men who have gone to college are 3 percent less likely to have
an affair than other men, while educational status has no impact
among women.
- Unhappy men are 13 percent more likely to have an affair, while
unhappy women are 10 percent more likely to do so.
- Religious women are 4 percent less likely to cheat, while
religion has no impact on whether men have an affair.
The study is published in the current issue of the journal
Kyklos.
More information
Genetics might play a role in infidelity, according to the
BBC.
