Cheating: How it Affects the Male, Female Mind Differently

A recent study shows how the act of cheating-whether emotional or physical-affects male and female partners quite differently.

Based on the latest study that involved 477 American adults who were asked different questions regarding emotional and sexual infidelity, findings showed that emotional infidelity was typically more painful for women whereas sexual infidelity was more painful for men.

In fact, the latest findings showed that men seem to be more concerned with sexual infidelity as only one in three said they would be sad if their wife formed an emotional attachment with another man. They found extramarital relations more painful than emotional attachments, according to The Daily Mail.

The study also showed that for more than half of the men surveyed, the idea of their partner having sex with another man was more upsetting than their wife being in love with another person.

Yet the results also revealed that four out of five women said they would be more jealous of their husband falling in love with another woman.

However, though women were typically more upset by emotional infidelity, and men were more hurt by sexual, the findings showed that both men and women reported that the combination of emotional and sexual infidelity was the worst.

"Males reported that sexual infidelity scenarios were relatively more distressing than emotional infidelity scenarios, and the opposite was true of females,"  said lead researcher Dr. Gary Brase of Kansas University, via a press release. "No factors showed a stronger relationship with reactions to infidelity than participant sex."

"This research finds no evidence that the specific beliefs about infidelity, sex roles, attachment styles, reported socio-sexual orientation, or cognitive styles are driving the consistent sex differences found in reactions to different types of infidelity scenarios," he said. "Men can never be absolutely certain that an infant carries their genes."

"Women, on the other hand, confront a different potential problem of ensuring continued paternal investment by the sire of their child," Brase said. "This possibility should make women differentially sensitive to emotional infidelity of their mate."

What do you think?

More information regarding the study can be found via the journal Evolutionary Psychology.