Physical Wellness

Woman Cheaters Have More Illicit Lovers than Man Counterparts

By Jennifer Lee | Update Date: May 20, 2012 01:08 AM EDT

Female cheaters tend to accumulate more extra-marital lovers than male cheaters, according to the UK adultery Survey 2012.

The survey involved 4,000 cheats and discovered that self-confessed woman adulterers have an average of 2.3 illicit lovers compared to 1.8 for men.

"Once they have made the huge decision to have an affair, women have far more opportunity to actually find someone to cheat with and are generally in control of deciding if and when to consummate the relationship once they do,"said Emily Pope of Undercover Lovers, a dating website that connects married people seeking affairs to the other some 600,000 members.

Female adulterers are also much more prone to falling in love with their affair partners than their male counterparts.

And researches found that women are more likely to be the first to think about cheating in a marriage. While unfaithful men don’t have their first affair until almost six years of married life, the average woman cheater strays just five years after the wedding.

They are also usually younger than men when they stray with the average woman adulterer starting at 37 compared to 42 for men.

While male philanderers cited the pursuit of sexual excitement, boredom with their marriages, and the need of an ego boost as main reasons for cheating, their female counterparts are found to be looking for emotional fulfillment, an improvement to their self esteem, and romance.

Both sexes think that monogamy is an unnatural state for humans. However, female adulterers are also more likely to report still loving their spouse compared to men with 76 percent of female participants reporting that they still love their spouses compared to 67 percent of male participants. More than 80 percent of both sexes want to keep the marriage.

The survey also found that a great percentage of cheaters are hypocrites, with 41 percent of women and 29 percent of men reporting that they would ask for a divorce if they discovered that their spouse was cheating.

Link to Survey

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