New research shows men are better at detecting infidelities than women; although they’re also more likely to suspect cheating that doesn’t exist.

A US study of heterosexual couples has found that men are the more suspicious of the sexes when it comes to straying, but the flip side is that to counter this constant vigilance, women may be better than men at concealing illicit liaisons.

Researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond gave confidential questionnaires to 203 young couples, asking them whether they had ever strayed, and whether they suspected or knew their partner had strayed.

The results, published in New Scientist magazine, showed 29 percent of men admitted they had cheated, compared with 18.5 percent of women.

Lead researcher Dr Paul Andrews said the men were better at judging fidelity than women:

Eighty percent of women’s inferences about fidelity or infidelity were correct, but men were even better, accurate 94 percent of the time.

Men were also more likely to catch out a cheating partner, detecting 75 percent of the reported infidelities compared with 41 percent discovered by women. However, men were also more likely to suspect infidelity when there was none.

Dr Andrews said this made evolutionary sense, because unlike women, men can never be certain that a baby is theirs:

Men have far more at stake. When a female partner is unfaithful, a man may himself lose the opportunity to reproduce, and find himself investing his resources in raising the offspring of another man.

David Buss, at the University of Texas, Austin, commented:

This adds to the evidence that men have evolved defences to detect their partner’s infidelity

Adding that it demonstrates a:

…fascinating cognitive bias that leads men to err on the side of caution by overestimating a partner’s infidelity.

However, Australian Sex therapist Dr Rosie King said that she believed men had heightened suspicions simply because they were the bigger cheaters and were more aware of the temptations.

They’re getting very busy seeking outside sexual activity so they’re more likely to suspect their partner is doing the same.

She pointed out that Australian research had found men were not naturally intuitive, making it “doubtful” that they could detect infidelity in women. Dr King went on to state:

Men are not good at reading body language or picking up non-verbal cues in the way that women are.

You might also enjoy reading:-

• Sex and the city? Don’t believe the hype
• More Japanese couples skip sex
• Indians shy of discussing sex
• Men with ‘hot’ partners have more sex
• Chinese youth conflicted about sex

Posted by Jonathan in Anthropology, Sociobiology

No Comments »