Health & Science

Guys who cheat on their famous wives; The sponge in us; A gut-level change; Turning up the heat; That man in red

Guys who cheat on their famous wives

Ever wonder why the husbands of gorgeous and successful women like Halle Berry and Sandra Bullock would cheat on them? Men with super-successful wives, a new study says, find financial dependency and secondary status to be a blow to their egos, and cheat as a way of reassuring themselves of their masculinity. In a study of couples in the 18- to 28-year-old age range, Cornell University researchers found a much higher infidelity rate among men who earn significantly less than their wives or live-in girlfriends. For stay-at-home husbands who are completely dependent on their wives’ income, the effect is even more pronounced, with the male being five times more likely to cheat. “Having multiple sexual partners may be an attempt to restore gender identity,” says researcher Christin Munsch. The phenomenon may become more common, she said, as more women take on roles as breadwinners. For women, economic dependency appears to have the opposite effect: The more dependent they are, the less likely they are to cheat. That may be because for women, getting caught is more likely to put one’s economic well-being at risk.

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