Infidelity and the Science of Cheating

A detailed Summary of Infidelity and the Science of Cheating

This a Review from an article in Newsweek 12-30-96 written by Sharon Begley "Infidelity and the Science of Cheating"

Through research psychologists and other researchers have claimed that sexual infidelity effects both men and women differently. In addition, their beliefs on sexual infidelity differ. There have been many theories about the occurrence of infidelity, and most researchers have different opinions about these theories.

Researchers from the article Infidelity and the Science of Cheating, written by Sharon Begley, have asked the following question to different ethnic groups of all ages and of both sexes: what distresses them more, emotional infidelity or sexual betrayal? The results were women find emotional infidelity more disturbing than men do, and men find sexual betrayal more disturbing than women do. These results varied slightly depending on how the question was asked, but the ratio remained almost the same.

Researchers found that men and women have different beliefs on sexual infidelity. Women believe that men think that "love implies sex more often then sex implies love (59)," and men believe that women think that "sex implies love about as strong as love implies sex (59)". The difference researchers expl

Sharon Begley believes that "women are evolutionary programmed to become more distressed at emotional infidelity than sexual infidelity (58)." She believes this because women notice that men having sex are not necessarily in love, and that men do not form emotional attachments easily. On the other hand, if a man becomes emotionally involved with the other woman, their relationship may be jeopardized. He may desert his first wife. Consequently, it would be difficult for his first wife to bring up her children as a single parent.

Sharon Begley's founded opinion is that "if there is a lesson here, it may be this: be wary of single bullet theories advanced so brilliantly that their dazzle gets in the way of their content (59)." What she is implying is to not believe everything you hear. Be sure you look beneath the surface to understand the theory's meaning. She also states that "for all the brickbats being hurled there is some common ground between the opposing camps (59)." What she is saying here is that there are many theories on the occurrence of infidelity, and that it all boils down to be that each theory draws the same conclusion.

This article was written to help educate our society on how men and women feel about infidelity by providing the reader with statistics and beliefs of both sexes. In addition, supplying th

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Approximate Word count = 897
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Miscellaneous