America
Husbands cheat on working wives to punish them mentally
Washington, June 1
If you are a sole
breadwinner in the family, keep a close tab on your hubby as he may have
an extra-marital affair to punish you mentally, a new study says.
"Infidelity
allows men undergoing a masculinity threat - that is not being primary
breadwinners - to distance themselves from, and perhaps punish, their
high-earning spouses," said Christin L. Munsch, assistant professor of
sociology at University of Connecticut.
According to her,
although both men and women are more likely to cheat on their spouses
the more economically dependent they are on them, there is a big
difference though.
In an average year, there is about a five
percent chance that women, who are completely economically dependent on
their husbands will cheat, whereas there is about a 15 percent chance
that men who are entirely economically dependent on their wives will
have an affair.
"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.
She discovered that men and women who are primary breadwinners in their marriages behave very differently.
For
women, the more they earn for the family, the less likely they are to
cheat. For example, women who are the primary breadwinners in their
marriages often minimise their achievements, defer to their spouses and
increase their housework.
"This emotional and physical work is
designed to decrease interpersonal conflict and shore up their husbands'
masculinity. It is also aimed at keeping potentially strained
relationships intact," Munsch said.
Among men, those who are completely economically dependent on their spouses are the most likely to cheat.
For
men, especially young men, the dominant definition of masculinity is
scripted in terms of sexual virility and conquest, particularly with
respect to multiple sex partners.
"Thus, engaging in infidelity may be a way of re-establishing threatened masculinity," the authors noted.
Also,
men are least likely to cheat when they bring home 70 percent of a
couples' total income. After 70 percent, however, men become
increasingly more likely to stray.
"These men are aware that
their wives are truly dependent and may think that, as a result, their
wives will not leave them even if they cheat," Munsch said.
They also might be cheating in search of a partner, who will contribute more economically to the relationship.
The study appeared in the journal American Sociological Review.