Economically-Dependent Spouses More Likely To Cheat, Reveals New Study

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Have you ever wondered who is more likely to cheat, you or your spouse? A new study has focused on this very question and has discovered that it has to do with economics.

Christin L. Munsh, a University of Connecticut professor has revealed in a new study published in American Sociology Review, that spouses, be it a man or woman, is more likely to cheat if their are economically dependent on their partner. However, men are three times as likely to do so.

The study used data from 2001 to 2011 among participants in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. The results were based on 2,757 heterosexual individuals between the age of 18 to 32 and have been in a relationship for a least a year.

It was found that there is a 5 percent chance a woman, completely dependent on their husband, will cheat, while for men who are fully dependent on their wives, the rate jumps three times as high to 15 percent.

"You would think that people would not want to 'bite the hand that feeds them' so to speak, but that is not what my research shows," quoted UConn Today of study author Christin L. Munsch, a UConn assistant professor of sociology. "Instead, the findings indicate that people like feeling relatively equal in their relationships. People don't like to feel dependent on another person."

It was also found that as the dependency on the spouse increases, the higher the likelihood of infidelity. It appears that for men, there is something that drives them to cheat, more so than women, if they aren't the primary breadwinners. The higher rate of infidelity is believed to be a way to regain masculinity and compensate for their wife taking on the provider role.

"Extramarital sex allows men undergoing a masculinity threat - that is, not being primary breadwinners, as is culturally expected - to engage in behavior culturally associated with masculinity," explained the assistant professor of sociology. "For men, especially young men, the dominant definition of masculinity is scripted in terms of sexual virility and conquest, particularly with respect to multiple sex partners. Thus, engaging in infidelity may be a way of re establishing threatened masculinity. Simultaneously, infidelity allows threatened men to distance themselves from, and perhaps punish, their higher-earning spouses."

The Wall Street Journal published that the study is timely because more and more families have women acting as breadwinners. This is due to the shift experienced by the U.S. economy where demand has shifted from "physical" jobs towards employment that is service-oriented.