When considering whether to have an extramarital affair, people make a cost-benefit calculation. This estimation has a connection with biological and socio-economic factors, and men and women calculate the net benefits from having an affair differently.
That's the conclusion of a new research, which found that these factors are slightly different for men and women.
According to lead author Bruce Elmslie, professor of economics at the UNH Whittemore School of Business and Economics and co-author Edinaldo Tebaldi, assistant professor of economics at Bryant University, the behaviour of men and women toward infidelity differs substantially, as men and women respond differently to the perceived costs and benefits of an affair.
For women, biological and socio-economic factors like men who are good candidates to father a child and who have the education and financial stability to provide for a family are significant factors women consider when deciding to have an affair.
These factors do not come into play for men who, overall, are 7 percent more likely to cheat than women.
The likelihood of a man having had an affair increases with age and reaches a peak when a man is about 55 years old. It then decreases with age. For women, the peak is 45 years old, which the authors say is logical when considering the biological reasons why women cheat.
The benefits of female infidelity reduce after the age of 40 because a woman would no longer benefit in terms of improved gene quality from the affair.