Is there such a thing as a cheating personality?
Friday, July 27, 2023.
The pattern of a cheating personality is somewhat baked in the cake of gender…
Solid research has revealed, men and women who are prone to cheat, do so for entirely different reasons.
Research has correlated a constellation of behaviors in men that are indicative of a cheating personality. Men who are risk-takers, easily sexually aroused, or men with intractable performance anxiety are the most likely to stray, according to the research findings.
For women, the pattern is different…
The research suggests that women in committed relationships are motivated more by their levels of happiness and degree of relational satisfaction.
To put it more bluntly, women who are unhappy in their primary relationship are more inclined to cheat.
Professor Robin Milhausen, who led the study, explained that most studies on infidelity have looked at demographic factors:
“Few studies on infidelity have gone beyond exploring demographics.
This research shows that demographic variables may not influence decision-making as much as previously thought — that personality matters more, especially for men.”
How the study was conducted
The research involved nearly a thousand men and women in committed relationships.
The findings showed that 19% of the female and 23% of the male study subjects fessed up to stepping out on their partner at some point.
The research showed that a man’s odds of being unfaithful was predicted by personality traits such as risk-taking.
Professor Milhausen commented on this finding::
“People might seek out high-risk situations to help them become aroused, or they might choose to have sex with a partner outside of their regular relationship because they feel they have an ‘out’ if the encounter doesn’t go well — they don’t have to see them again.”
For the female respondents, it was more about their relational satisfaction.
Relational dissatisfaction doubled the likelihood of cheating.
Professor Milhausen summarized his findings:
“All kinds of things predict infidelity…
What this study says is that when you put all of those things together, for men, personality characteristics are so strong they bounce everything else out of the model.
For women, in the face of all other variables, it’s still the relationship that is the most important predictor.”
Professor Milhausen concluded:
“Taken at face value, this research might seem to just support sexual stereotypes: Women are just concerned about the relationship, and, for men, once a cheater, always a cheater, regardless of their relationship.
But the caveat is that there are a lot of variants and factors that are not explained here that might impact whether someone cheats.”
RESEARCH:
Mark KP, Janssen E, Milhausen RR. Infidelity in heterosexual couples: demographic, interpersonal, and personality-related predictors of extradyadic sex. Arch Sex Behav. 2011 Oct;40(5):971-82. doi: 10.1007/s10508-011-9771-z. Epub 2011 Jun 11. PMID: 21667234.
