Men are more than twice as likely to continue dating a girlfriend who had an affair with a woman than cheat with another man, but men are more likely to stick it out after a male partners heterosexual affair.
Men may even see it as an opportunity for a threesome as this would satisfying men’s greater desire for more partners, claims doctoral candidate in evolutionary psychology Jaime C. Confer.
Or to put it more scientifically, men “may view a partner’s homosexual affair as an opportunity to mate with more than one woman simultaneously.”
Men were 50 percent likely to continuing dating a partner who has had a homosexual affair and 22 percent of staying with a woman after a heterosexual affair.
Women were 28 percent likely to continuing dating a boyfriend who has had a heterosexual affair and 21 percent likely of staying with a man who has had a homosexual affair.
A study, published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences, provides new insight into the psychological adaptations behind men’s desire for a variety of partners and women’s desire for a committed partner.
These drives have played a key role in the evolution of human mating psychology., claims the research from the University of Texas at Austin.
Women show the opposite pattern. They are more likely to continue dating a man who has had a heterosexual affair than one who has had a homosexual affair.
“A robust jealousy mechanism is activated in men and women by different types of cues — those that threaten paternity in men and those that threaten abandonment in women,” says Confer.
Confer conducted the study with her father, Mark D. Cloud, a psychology professor at Lock Haven University in Pennsylvania.
The researchers asked 700 college students to imagine they were in a committed romantic and sexual relationship with someone they’ve been dating for three months. They were then asked how they would respond to infidelity committed by the imagined partner, reports Science Daily.
Some participants were told their partners had been unfaithful with a man, others with a woman. Some were told their partners had an affair with one person, others with multiple partners. Some were told the infidelity happened once, others twice.
Men are more distressed by the type of infidelity that could threaten the paternity of their offspring.
The results are remarkable because surveys show men have more negative attitudes toward homosexuality and to be less supportive of civil rights for same-sex couples than women.
“However, this general trend of men showing lower tolerance for homosexuality than women is reversed in the one fitness-enhancing situation — female homosexuality,” say the authors.
Women objected to continuing a relationship following both types of affairs. However, a homosexual affair may be seen as a sign of dissatisfaction with the current relationship and a prelude to possible abandonment..
Asked the outcomes of real-life infidelity experiences, men were significantly more likely than women to have ended their actual relationships following a partner’s (presumably heterosexual) affair.
