Bad news — the more men and women depend on a spouse financially, the more likely they are to sleep around. Worse news — men do it MUCH more often than women.
According to a study presented by the American Sociological Association, women who were primary earners in partnership were the least likely to cheat but dirtbag men who weren’t earning dick were the most likely to cheat. Here’s the technical jargon from the boys in the white coats.
“Extramarital sex allows men undergoing a masculinity threat — that is not being primary breadwinners, as is culturally expected — to engage in behavior culturally associated with masculinity,” said study author Christin L. Munsch, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Connecticut. “For men, especially young men, the dominant definition of masculinity is scripted in terms of sexual virility and conquest, particularly with respect to multiple sex partners. Thus, engaging in infidelity may be a way of reestablishing threatened masculinity. Simultaneously, infidelity allows threatened men to distance themselves from, and perhaps punish, their higher-earning spouses.”
Well if you’re masculinity is threatened why don’t you go and fill out a couple Home Depot applications? So, maybe if the roles are reversed, women being supported 100% by their man will also cheat. Nope.
“The effect was mirrored in women, but to a lesser degree — women completely dependent on their husbands have about a 5% chance of cheating, versus 15% for dependent men.”
How about this scenario — what if the guy makes more and the woman makes less than maybe he won’t…NOPE!
“The study found that men were least likely to cheat when they accounted for 70% of the household income, but beyond that their odds of cheating increased again — likely because their wives’ dependence gives them little reason to fear retaliation.”
So all ten guys making exactly 70% of the money in the home aren’t cheating. Good job, ten guys. The rest of us, wow, we are fucking pigs, huh?
[via Ask Men]