Men More Likely To Cheat If They Are Economically Dependent On Their Female Partners

August 16, 2010

Economic dependency has the opposite effect on women


“But for women, economic dependency seems to have the opposite effect: the more dependent they are on their male partners, the less likely they are to engage in infidelity,” said Christin Munsch, a sociology Ph.D. candidate at Cornell University, and author of the study, “The Effect of Relative Income Disparity on Infidelity for Men and Women.”


“One or more of these variables is impacting the relationship,” Munsch said. “For example, it may be that men who make less money than their partners are more unhappy and cheat because they are unhappy, not necessarily because they make less money.”

Ironically, men who make significantly more than their female partners were also more likely to cheat. “At one end of the spectrum, making less money than a female partner may threaten men’s gender identity by calling into question the traditional notion of men as breadwinners,” Munsch said. “At the other end of the spectrum, men who make a lot more money than their partners may be in jobs that offer more opportunities for cheating like long work hours, travel, and higher incomes that make cheating easier to conceal.”




“For women, making less money than a male partner is not threatening, it is the status quo,” said Munsch. “More importantly, economically dependent women may encounter fewer opportunities to cheat, and they may make a calculated decision that cheating just isn’t worth it. If they get caught, their livelihood is at risk.”

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