Income Disparity Causes Spouses to Cheat on Better Halves

Women beware! Husbands who earn less are more likely to cheat than men who out-earn their partners, an interesting new study claims.

The study by University of Connecticut academic Christin L Munsch showed that the need to conform to masculinity drives men at both ends of relative income spectrum to cheat. But a man who is completely financially dependent on the wife is more likely to cheat compared to a man who is family's breadwinner.

"The increase in the likelihood of men engaging in infidelity that occurs as they make significantly more than their wives is relatively small compared to the increase in the likelihood of cheating that takes place among men as they become more economically dependent. But the affairs of economically dependent men simply don't garner media attention, so we hear about this kind of infidelity far less often," Munsch said.

Dependent women too cheat on their spouses, the study found, though it argues that women who are less likely to cheat as their incomes relative to family income increases. According to the study, there is a 5 percent chance a woman completely dependent on her husband will cheat while it is 15 percent for a husband in economical similar situation. The study used 10-year data obtained from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth.

"You would think that people would not want to 'bite the hand that feeds them' so to speak, but that is not what my research shows," Munsch said.

"Instead, the findings indicate that people like feeling relatively equal in their relationships. People don't like to feel dependent on another person."

The study has been published in American Sociological Review.