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Oct 28

Those Cheatin’ Hearts

By Jay Slupesky
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Infidelity


Dolphin, Kauai

Here’s the latest news on infidelity, according to recently published studies:

  • Older men are cheating more than they used to. In 1991, 20% of men over age 60 said they had been unfaithful at some point in their life. In 2006, the rate increased to 28%. (These data are reported by Dr. David Atkins at the University of Washington Center for the Study of Health and Risk Behaviors.)
  • Younger women are now cheating almost as much as younger men: For people under age 35, 20% of men at 15% of women say they have been unfaithful. These numbers are up significantly from 1991. The increase is blamed at least partially on Internet pornography and women working more and travelling more.

Of course, it can be hard to determine what percentage of people are unfaithful, because not everyone who has cheated will admit it to a researcher.  That’s why researchers now use anonymous computer questionnaires to compile their data.

One more thing: those high rates of cheating that you see in the surveys done by some women’s magazines are not accurate because the people who take the survey are not a random cross-section of the population. Instead, they are the ones who choose to respond to the survey, and they are more likely to say they have been unfaithful.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 28th, 2008 at 9:47 pm and is filed under Infidelity.

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