Cheating is a big part of women’s DNA, study says

LONDON: Women are genetically predisposed to have affairs as “back-up plans” if their relationships fail, a research paper states.

University of Texas scientists are challenging the assumption that humans have evolved to have monogamous relationships.

The team’s research has put forward the “mate-switching hypothesis” which says humans have evolved to keep testing their relationships and looking for better longterm options. The senior author of the research, Dr David Buss, told the Sunday Times: “Lifelong monogamy does not characterise the primary mating patterns of humans.

“Breaking up with one partner and mating with another may more accurately characterise the common, perhaps the primary, mating strategy of humans.”

For our distant ancestors – when disease, poor diet and minimal healthcare meant that few people lived past 30 – looking for a more suitable partner was necessary, researchers assert. No study has shown that humans are predisposed to monogamy or non-monogamy.

A study carried out by Rafael Wlodarski and researchers at Oxford University looking into infidelity found a correlation between the length of an individual’s ring finger and the likelihood that they would cheat on a partner.

However, they stressed that they could not find a causal link.

Buss said: “Affairs serve as a form of mate insurance, keeping a back-up mate should a switch become warranted in the future.

“A regular mate may cheat, defect, die or decline in mate value.

“Ancestral women lacking a back-up mate would have suffered a lapse in protection and resources.” – The Independent