Affairs to Remember: Why Women Cheat on Their Partners

Why do women cheat?  Is it a symptom of something lacking in your relationship, simple boredom, or because they can? The clever folks at Business Insider think they've latched on to the key factors, and have collected their findings for a very interesting overview. Psychotherapist and author M. Gary Newman spoke to Business Insider, saying that one of the main reasons women cheat is "sexual infrequency". Newman surveyed 500 admitted cheaters and non-cheaters for his study. The non-cheaters said they had sex with their partners an average of 10 times per month, while the cheaters said that they had sex with their partners on average only five times per month. Newman also cited a lack of communication in the cheater's relationships. Non-cheaters reported that they spent 30-60 minutes per day talking with their other halves, while cheaters claimed to spend less than five minutes a day talking to their partners. Dr. Helen Fisher, an Anthropologist at Rutgers University, cited a study that showed 34 per cent of cheating women were "happy" in their relationships. So, the less happy the woman, the more likely she is to cheat. So far, so logical. However, the same did not apply to male cheaters. Fisher said that 56 per cent of the cheating men described themselves as happy in their relationship. So, men were just as likely to cheat within a happy relationship as they were in an unhappy one - their current relationship really had no bearing. Another interesting statistic from the video showed that more women are cheating that ever. According to a survey by the National Opinion Research Centre, women are 40 per cent more likely to cheat than they were 20 years ago. Scientists have partially attributed this to the increased presence of women in the workforce. Further, the more successful the woman - the more likely she is to cheat, with women earning over $75,000 (€66,300) per year 1.5 times more likely to cheat than women earning less than $30,000 (€26,500).