Once a cheater, always a cheater…or is that really the case? It turns out there might be a scientific basis to the reason a person becomes a cheater. Are you the type of person who would cheat? You just may be…if you’re in one of these groups.
Those With Ages Ending in 9
It’s been said plenty of times that those who cheat partially do so because of insecurities. While it’s easy to brush this sort of statement off as, “Excuses, excuses,” there is something to be said about an increase in one’s insecurity as they get older. Just look at every romantic comedy you’ve ever seen wherein a woman nearing the end of her thirties begins panicking about her age.
Well, if you’ve ever been cheated on by someone on the crux of a new age bracket, whether they were 29, 39, 49, etc., the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences might have identified said ages as the common link.
According to their abstract, it’s this period of life that leads “adults [to] undertake a search for existential meaning … which leads them to behave in ways that suggest an ongoing or failed search for meaning…”
These potentially “life-altering choices” can include cheating, as well as the decision to change the way a person works out, among other things.
Women Who Teach
Sure, there’s the ever-present stereotype of the demure and innocent teacher—especially when it comes to women who teach. It’s likely that most of us are guilty of these assumptions, that the women who teach are automatically just a bit more…immune to the ills of the world than the rest of society.
Rather than being confronted with the chore of social media, they’ve got their noses stuck in a book as they spend their nights crafting lesson plans instead of taking selfies for Instagram, or binge watching salacious series. Right?
On the contrary, if a woman is cheating, it’s probably a safe assumption that she’s in the education field. According to a survey that polled over 5,000 women, 65 percent of those who cheat do so at their place of business.
In a turn of irony though, 85 percent of said women advise against having intimate relations with a coworker.
Tweeters
Some people are always seeking approval online through their various profiles. Social media obsession can be a huge red flag to look for when committing to a serious relationship: As you’ll see in the video below, people who spend the most time on Twitter are more likely to be unfaithful.
The Quiet Ones (IT-ers)
Sure, the stereotype is that just about any guy who works in the IT field—or any technology field—is quiet, unsuspecting, and a bit of an outcast. We assume he’s lacking in social confidence and, as a result, frequently passed over as a potential mate.
This applies to the concept of cheating as well, as it’s rare to think of the nice, innocent, guy in IT seeking out a potential affair. Another survey actually appears to prove the opposite though.
So if you know that you have a particular weak spot for those who are a bit more technologically savvy or do that for their career, then you might want to be a bit more wary before you get involved in something serious.
Just because he spends his days repairing other people’s mishaps on their computers and company networks doesn’t mean he isn’t also juggling a couple of women at the same time.
Tall Men
Height is one of the few physical attributes which can be agreed upon by most women looking for a man. It’s pretty common to seek out a taller man, at least in the West. This is a preference that women might want to reevaluate from here on out though.
An infidelity site conducted a survey that concluded that a man’s height—specifically, if he’s 5’10” or over—actually directly correlates to his likelihood to cheat.
It’s not that men over 5’10” are genetically engineered to cheat and those who are shorter aren’t. Rather, a man’s height oftentimes corresponds to his confidence. Given societal standards, it isn’t shocking that a taller man tends to be more confident than his shorter peers.
While confidence is a pretty attractive trait, it just so happens to be the downfall of men exceeding this height bracket and tends to lead them to have a wandering eye.
Wayne
Believe it or not, the fate of your significant other (current or future) might have been decided for them long before they ever had a chance to decide what sort of person they wanted to be. In fact, their tendency to cheat might be linked to their name.
According to a couple of thousand women who were surveyed, the name Wayne was actually deemed the most suspect when it comes to the world of romance.
According to another cheating site, which reached out to over 4,000 men and women—more than a couple of thousand of each—it seems that Nathan might be the most popular name of cheating men, while Megan is the one to watch out for with women.
It isn’t just men who are incredibly susceptible to cheating though, in spite of what many of us believe. According to psychologist, Dr. Bonnie Eaker Weil, over half of all married women are bound to cheat on their significant other eventually.
Blondes
Talk about judging a book by its cover, right, people? Well it turns out that it just might save you a lot of time and pain in the long run if you ignore the adage and do that, according to a survey.
This one found that blondes make up 42 percent of the population of unfaithful women, with redheads following right behind at 23 percent. Next were brunettes at 20 percent. Women sporting black hair appear to be the “safest,” as they come in at just 11 percent.
On the contrary, men with brown hair are more prone to cheating than those without—they came in at 40 percent. Those with black hair made up 23 percent of the population, with blondes making up 20 percent, and redheads just 5 percent.
One thing to be considered though is that the study didn’t take into account whether a person was balding or dyeing their hair. So maybe there’s still hope?
Shopaholics
While it might be unfair to automatically ascribe a woman’s tendency to cheat to a love of shopping (come on, there are just some things that we can’t help but buy), a survey— conducted by, you guessed it, a site promoting infidelity—would say otherwise.
In fact, over 52,000 women were surveyed and what might be even more shocking than the shopping connection are the favored clothing brands of this subset of women. At the top of the list is none other than Banana Republic.
This tendency to shop might not be a cause of the cheating, but rather, an effect, given that a good deal of the women “said they spend more on their appearance since they started cheating.”
Victoria’s Secret has, unsurprisingly, been cited as the default pick for underwear for 69 percent of women in this situation. Other brands that struck their fancy included, but were not limited to, J. Crew, Macy’s, and H&M. Quite the gamut there.