When it comes to men who stray, you'd be forgiven for thinking it was the young, virile variety who are most likely to cheat on their partners.
Well, apparently, that's not the case.
According to research conducted by the University of New Hampshire, a man's eye is most likely to wander at age 55.
The study, which focused on the economic costs and benefits of cheating on a spouse, also showed that for men, getting caught was a bigger deterrent than eternal damnation. Already seven percent more likely to cheat than women, the likelihood of a man having had an affair increases with age, peaking at 55.
Women, meanwhile, are most likely to have an affair at age 45, something the authors of the
study put down to biological factors.
"The benefits of female infidelity reduce after the age of 40 because a woman would no longer benefit in terms of improved gene quality from the affair." report the researchers. "Men also experience a reduction of sperm quality around the age of 45, but the reproductive benefits of an affair expand further into a man's lifetime than a woman's,"
Interestingly, upper-class women are eight percent more likely to cheat than middle and lower-class women, while men were equally likely to cheat, regardless of their background.
