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Topics: News, Sex and Relationships, Science, Education
Niamh Shackleton
Topics: News, Sex and Relationships, Science, Education
A dating expert has shared her thoughts on the reason why people cheat in relationships.
Most people wouldn't openly admit to having cheated on their partner, but studies into the topic estimates that infidelity affects one in four marriages.
A lot of people may presume that people cheat in their relationships if they're unhappy; this isn't always the case, however.
In fact, studies have found that 56 percent of men and 34 percent of cheating women who have strayed from their partner deemed their relationship as happy, Shadow Investigations reports.
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So why are we cheating, I hear you ask? Dating expert Jana Hocking says it's down to getting an 'adrenaline rush'.
"I think they take the risk because they think it's sexy or exciting, or the sneaking around is giving their everyday boring lives a bit of an adrenaline rush," she explained on Weekend Today, as per MailOnline.
"There are also a lot of average guys cheating on like ten out of ten girls. That is the common theme."
Jana further explained that if someone feels like their partner is significantly more attractive than them then that can spark insecurities that leads to cheating.
She said: "I think it's because these doofus guys are thinking 'she's so hot and she could cheat at any opportunity. I need that validation to people to still think I'm hot as well.'"
Jana added that someone being 'really charming' could be a red flag people need to look out for.
In a more in-depth study released in recent months, a team of scientists looked into the reason why women in particular may stray from their partner.
Researchers from the prestigious Oxford University in England and Melbourne University in Australia conducted a pre-registered survey of 254 individuals from 19 countries across six continents who were previously, or currently, engaged in infidelity. All those who took part were in heterosexual relationships.
The female participants were asked to measure their partner's attraction through whether they believe they would make a good parent, how attracted they were to their personality and how physically attractive they are.
They were then tasked with rating the person they had an affair with in the same way for the scores to be compared.
The findings went on to show that men's fidelity is supposedly sparked by 'increasing offspring quantity', while women typically find the person they cheated on more attractive than their partner, but didn't find them as appealing to co-parent with.
The evolutionary drivers of female infidelity in humans still remains up for 'vigorous debate', however.