While men cheat more often, women are also unfaithful. A new study claims to find out why.
Researchers have discovered that females are unfaithful because they want ‘good genes’ for their offspring. This is known as the ‘double mating theory’.
Women often seek out more attractive affair partners because of their genetic makeup, but stay with a partner who would make a better parent.
However, some participants indicated that they were bored or that their current partner was not showing enough interest. They simply wanted the best of both worlds.
Women are more likely to cheat on their partners because they are looking for a more attractive man to have children with. However, researchers found that women are more likely to stay with their current partner because they are a good co-parent
The study was conducted by Australian and British researchers who surveyed 254 heterosexual people, 116 of whom were women. They were asked to measure their physical, personal and parental attraction to both partners.
Participants were asked to rate physical attractiveness by saying, “He looked very sexy,” “I didn’t like his looks,” or “He was quite ugly.”
Questions about their attraction to their affair partner included: “I thought he had good fatherly qualities,” “I thought he could be trusted to take care of a child,” and “I believed men like him were bad fathers.”
The studyA study published in the journal Evolution and Human Behavior found that women rated the physical attractiveness of their affair partner 1.93 points higher than that of their primary partner, while the attractiveness of their parents was 3.33 points lower.
Their findings supported the so-called dual-mating theory, in which women cheat to obtain “good genes” for their offspring, while trusting their primary partners to be good co-parents.
However, the researchers reported that they found no evidence that participants preferred their affair partner over their steady partner.
A significant number of women reported feeling dissatisfied with their relationships, including feelings of neglect, unhappiness, and a lack of emotional support.
“Infidelity is a tactic that serves a variety of evolutionarily coherent strategies, including obtaining additional resources, switching a new primary partner and, most notably in our study, obtaining genetic benefits for the offspring,” said Macken Murphy, a PhD student at the University of Melbourne. Psychopost.
“But just because humans evolved to cheat doesn’t mean we should. And most people don’t.”
These findings echo previous research that has also shown that whether your partner cheats depends on how good-looking he or she is, according to researchers at Harvard University.
In the new study, researchers also speculated that infidelity could be caused by the partner-switching theory — where a woman begins an affair while trying to replace her current partner with someone better.
Although some women cited this as a reason for their boyfriends or husbands cheating, the findings showed that this was not the main reason.
The researchers reported that some women reported cheating because they were “bored,” suggesting they were seeking new sexual or romantic partners and experiences. Others said they wanted to get revenge for their partner’s infidelity in order to maintain a sense of fairness and balance in the relationship.
A significant number of women reported being dissatisfied with their relationships, feeling neglected, unhappy and lacking emotional support.
“It may sound funny, but the evolutionary drivers of female infidelity in humans are a topic of intense debate in my corner of academia,” Murphy told Psypost. He added, “There are just too many good explanations!”