New research by a psychologist from the University of Texas at Austin indicates that men are more than twice as likely to continue dating a girlfriend who has cheated on them with another woman than one who has cheated with another man, according toYourTango.com.
The study, published this month in the journalPersonality and Individual Differences, asked 700 college students to imagine they were in committed relationships with someone they had been dating three months. Then they were asked to respond to multiple scenarios in which their partners had been unfaithful with a man, a woman, or multiples of either group.
A full 50% of men said they stay with woman who had sex with another woman, but only 22% would stay if their girlfriend slept with a man.
The study did not go into social perceptions and how stereotypes about bisexuality — not to mention the pervasive male fantasy about having sex with two women at once — might have affected those surveyed.
Proving bisexuals get the shaft (no pun intended) either way (either erasure or exploitation), the women in the study were very unlikely to continue dating a man who had sex with another man. Only 21% would stay with a same-sex cheater.
Researcher Jaime C. Confer, the study’s lead author, say the results show men are only “really threatened by indiscretions that come in the way of their paternity or offspring” and that “a robust jealousy mechanism is activated in men and women by different types of cues,” namely “those that threaten paternity in men and those that threaten abandonment in women.”
The study, published this month in the journalPersonality and Individual Differences, asked 700 college students to imagine they were in committed relationships with someone they had been dating three months. Then they were asked to respond to multiple scenarios in which their partners had been unfaithful with a man, a woman, or multiples of either group.
A full 50% of men said they stay with woman who had sex with another woman, but only 22% would stay if their girlfriend slept with a man.
The study did not go into social perceptions and how stereotypes about bisexuality — not to mention the pervasive male fantasy about having sex with two women at once — might have affected those surveyed.
Proving bisexuals get the shaft (no pun intended) either way (either erasure or exploitation), the women in the study were very unlikely to continue dating a man who had sex with another man. Only 21% would stay with a same-sex cheater.
Researcher Jaime C. Confer, the study’s lead author, say the results show men are only “really threatened by indiscretions that come in the way of their paternity or offspring” and that “a robust jealousy mechanism is activated in men and women by different types of cues,” namely “those that threaten paternity in men and those that threaten abandonment in women.”
