Men report higher rates of extramarital sex: Study

Despite claims that men and women cheat on their partners at similar rates, a new study published in the Journal of Family Psychology found that men consistently report higher rates of extramarital sex. Researchers from the University of Colorado Boulder also discovered just who these people are cheating with.

If your fiancé does end up stepping out on your relationship, it’s probably not going to be with the adult entertainer his best man hired for the bachelor party. Lindsay Labrecque, a psychology graduate student at UC Boulder and lead author of the study, says that infidelity is one of the most common reasons given for ending relationships, but “very little was previously known about who people have extramarital relationships with.” She and co-author Mark Whisman analysed nine years’ worth of data, including the survey responses from 13,030 people.

In addition to looking at their attitudes toward extramarital sex, the survey asked participants if they had ever had sex outside of their marriage, if so, how many times and to identify their other partners. Answers included close personal friend, neighbour/co-worker/longterm acquaintance, casual date or paid sex.

Possibly, signaling the beginnings of a shift in how people view extramarital sex, there was a slight decrease in the percentage of people who say cheating is always wrong. There were also “significant” differences in how men and women view and engage in extramarital sex. The study states that the odds of a man reporting extramarital sex in his lifetime was 1.74 times greater than the odds of a woman reporting it in her lifetime. The odds of a man reporting extramarital sex during the past year was 2.31 times greater than a woman reporting extramarital sex in the past year.

So, who are these men and women cheating with? “We found that about 53% of individuals who reported having extramarital sex in the past year did so with a close personal friend. An affair with a close personal friend seems to carry greater risk as both spouses may know or even be close friends with the extramarital sex partner,” says Labrecque. She adds, “Given the potential for greater fulfillment and closeness, extramarital sex with a close personal friend may denote a stronger commitment to leave a marriage than extramarital sex with a casual date or someone who is paid for sex.”

The study also found out that about a third of the respondents reported cheating with a neighbour, long-term acquaintance or a co-worker. The results are interesting, especially when coupled with the findings of another study on infidelity partners, where researchers found out that most cheating partners don’t actually know initially that they’re engaging in infidelity — which makes us wonder just how well we know the people in our lives.

ABOUT ONE THIRD OF THE RESPONDENTS REPORTED CHEATING WITH A NEIGHBOUR, COWORKER OR LONGTERM ACQUAINTANCE

PHOTO: ISTOCK/USED FOR REPRESENTATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY