Do Men or Women Cheat More?

Cheating is significantly more prevalent than you may realize. It would help if you didn’t absolve yourself of the responsibility for your past infidelity. This is not an extremely rare incident; many others have shared your situation. Nonetheless, how common is it? Is it anything to which we are genetically predisposed? Does one’s gender indicate whether or not they will cheat on their partner? Do Men or Women Cheat More?

What Is Cheating?

There are a variety of definitions of cheating; however, the most widely agreed-upon definition is: participating in a physical or emotional relationship without the approval of a person with whom you’re currently involved. Infidelity could be entirely emotional, in which you feel love and dedication to someone who is not your partner, or it could be a single occurrence of sexual participation in which neither of the involved parties meets again. Do Men or Women Cheat More?

Most common reasons for cheating

A Lack of Satisfaction in Sexual Relationships

As a general rule, men are more likely to blame sexual unhappiness as the prime motivator behind an affair, and this trend reaches a climax after his partner gives birth. The most prevalent reason males provide for having an affair is a dissatisfying or non-existent sex life, although they did not necessarily imply that their disobedience was acceptable.

Emotional Negligence

The most common cause of infidelity among women is emotional neglect. If a woman does not receive emotional support from her boyfriend/partner, she may seek it elsewhere, increasing the likelihood of extramarital affairs. This search could lead to an emotional affair, but it also has the potential to result in sexual cheating.

Boredom

Boredom with one’s present romantic partnership can also lead to extramarital affairs. There is some evidence that suggests the familiarity of a long-term partner might be considered a detriment rather than a boon, as infidelity is more common among couples who have been together for a longer time than those who have been dating for a shorter period of time.

Do Men or Women Cheat More?

Men and women who were married or had been married before were polled by the Institute for Family Studies (IFS) between 2010 and 2016. 20% of males and 13% of women in the General Social Survey reported having sexual relations with someone other than their spouse while still married.

Although, the gender difference varies with age. According to data from the same poll of married persons aged 18 to 29, more women were guilty of infidelity, and 11% of the women who participated in the survey said confessing to having an affair. In comparison, about 10% of men their age are culpable. However, the difference reverses as one enters the next age group.

Infidelity in men increases among those aged 30 to 39 years old, with 14% of those polled admitting to cheating on their relationship, while only 11% of women acknowledged having an affair. Cheating has become increasingly common as people have gotten older. Males in their 60s have a greater infidelity rate (24%), and the number continues to rise until the age of 70-79 when 26% of men cheat on their partners. On the other hand, women are most likely to cheat when they are in their 60s (16%). This number goes down as they get closer to their 70s (13%) and 80s (6%).

Furthermore, between 2000 and 2009, males aged 60 to 69 (29%) and women aged 50 to 59 (17%) had the highest infidelity rate. Compared to the 1990s, more males aged 80 and up acknowledged cheating over this period (from 5% to 12%).

According to an updated survey released in 2020 by IFS, 20% of males admitted to cheating, but only 10% of women acknowledged having an affair. With no further breakdown of any age category, the survey found that men and women aged 18-34 and 65+ share the same infidelity rate of 16%.
Cheating men are more likely to be married than their female counterparts. Sixty-one percent of men who have cheated upon their wives are still married, while 34 percent are single. Only 44% of women with a history of infidelity are married at present, while 47% are divorced or separated.

This difference between the genders may be attributable to the fact that males are more likely than women to remarry following a divorce. Since we can’t know from the data whether the individual who cheated is still married to the partner they cheated on, it’s possible that some currently married “cheaters” are remarried.

Cheating can be a symptom of both marital and personal problems. Both partners and single people can benefit from relationship counseling, which can help them figure out how to fix a broken connection, fix their communication habits, or overcome their anxiety about intimacy and connection.