Men cheat more than women

Question

Cheating is more common than you think. If you’ve been cheated on before, don’t put all the blame on yourself. It’s not a one-in-a-million occurrence, and many people have been...

Comments

This was a really interesting fact. I always wanted to know who actually cheated more and the information given was really helpful especially when I furthered the research and there were a lot of surveys and percentages given to support the claim. I did see that different age groups have different percentages and they fluctuate but I think this is because as the age groups go up the percentages get higher because of how long they have been with their partner.

Answer 1

The claim that men cheat more than women is true. A study from the a study published in the Journal of Marital and Family Therapy (https://scholarworks.calstate.edu/concern/theses/ht24wm65z) found that 20% of men and 13% of women are reporting infidelity. However, it is important to note that cultural, social, and individual factors can influence cheating behaviors. For example, the Institute for Family Studies (https://ifstudies.org/blog/who-cheats-more-the-demographics-of-cheating-in-america) reported that among adults aged 18-29, women are more likely to cheat then men, but it reverses in older age groups. They also found that adults who did not grow up in "intact" families were also more likely to cheat than those who did. Overall, there is statistical data to support the claim that men cheat more than women, but it is subjective to each person and just because you are a man does not necessarily mean that you will cheat.

Comments

Great job factchecking! I like how you used a study outside the ones mentioned in the original article. Next time, you could mention what your sources are/why they are trustable regarding the issue at hand. Additionally, you could fact check the specific statistics you found by searching if any other sources mention them to be true. Finally, you could bring in other demographical features other than age. For instance, does tendency to cheat vary according to geographical location?

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Well done on the fact-checking! I appreciate that you cited a study that wasn't included in the original article. The next time, you may identify your sources and explain why they are reliable in relation to the topic at hand. You might also verify the accuracy of the particular numbers you discovered by seeing if they are mentioned in any other sources. Lastly, you may include demographic characteristics other than age.

Answer 2

Fact Checking the claim “Men cheat more than women”, I have found it to be true. The claim is supported by an article from Discreet Investigations and Security, renowned for private investigator specialists. This group uses “hard evidence” to help people like families and spouses make “smarter decisions”. Surely some of the work this group investigates is cheating between partners, making them fairly knowledgeable on the subject. They use a statistic reported by the Institute for Family Studies that reveals 20% of men reporting cheating, compared to 13% from women. To make sure this statistic was true, I visited the Institute for Family Studies website and found an article that corroborated this fact. Moreover, this website itself is reliable because they are a source dedicated to “strengthen marriage and family life” through research. However, there are stipulations in this infidelity may vary based on age. But, the overall broader claim of men cheating more than women is indeed true. 

Answer 3

When I researched this claim on Institute for Family Studies I found this claim to be true. A General Social Survey was completed and found that 20% of men reported cheating on their wife, while only 13% of women reported cheating on their husband. There are differences in this data based on age group, but overall men cheat more than women.

IFS Studies

Discreet Investigations & Security

Answer 4

While there is data that suggests men cheat more in comparison to women, the data does not take into account other factors. 

According to 2 different studies men were proven to have higher rates of cheating than women. According to a 2006 American General Social Survey "nearly twice as many married men as women admitted to having had sexual relations with someone other than their spouse." and another study conducted by the National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles found that "15% of men had had 'overlapping' relationships in the previous year, but only 9% of women." While both of these statements support the original claim after doing further research this data is not entirely encompassing. This data comes from peoples own admissions so the data may be skewed by the type of people willing to admit this, and does not actually encompass true statistics. Also the way in which data was collected skewed the data in a way that made infidelity appear in instances it did not. 

Another problem with this claim is that there are different types of cheating such as emotional, or physical and different people classify cheating in different ways. The differences in how people define cheating creates problems with defining and collecting data of this type.

Overall while there is data to support the claim that men cheat more than women, the data isn't as strong as it is portrayed to be.   

Sources: 

- https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-18233843

- https://discreetinvestigations.ca/infidelity-statistics-who-cheats-more-men-or-women/

- https://www.perspectivesoftroy.com/2020/10/07/do-men-cheat-more-often-than-women/

Answer 5

This claim is true. According to The General Social Survey of 2018, men are more likely than women to cheat: 20% of men and 13% of women reported that they’ve had sex with someone other than their spouse while married.

https://ifstudies.org/blog/who-cheats-more-the-demographics-of-cheating-in-america

Answer 6

The claim that men are more likely to cheat than women is complicated but for the sake of all I could find it seems to be partly true however I would still say it is misleading. Most of the articles I read seemed to have varying degrees on how much more likely men were to have an affair than women, but there seems to be a common consensus that men do cheat more on average. However, most of the sources I read only looked into straight couples and didn't expand further, leaving out several groups that could possibly change the statistic. You cannot claim that all men are more likely to have affairs and cheat on their partners if you only pull from one group of men. This combined with the idea that the original study the article pulled from was from around 2010-2016 meaning it is out of date also adds to the idea that it is likely misleading.

Articles:

https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-18233843

https://www.perspectivesoftroy.com/2020/10/07/do-men-cheat-more-often-than-women/

https://news.utexas.edu/2013/09/18/stronger-sexual-impulses-not-weaker-self-control-may-explain-why-men-cheat-more-than-women-study-reveals/

Answer 7

In order to determine whether or not this claim is true, false, or exaggerated/misleading, I first looked at the provided Discreet Investigation & Security article, "Infidelity Statistics: Who Cheats More, Men or Women?" by James Glanville. On the article itself, there's a hyperlink on Glanville's name that takes you directly to Discreet Investigation & Security's "Home" page, stating that the corporation's a private investigation company based in Toronto Canada. As I scrolled down that same page, I found a short bio on Mr. Glanville, describing him as the President and CEO of the company. The blurb goes on to mention that, "... [as] a security consultant, surveillance authority, and clandestine agent, [Glanville's] resume is impressive" (Discreet Investigation & Security). However, despite claiming his excellence in the field, there's no further information listed, such as past academic accomplishments or titles, that credits Glanville's reputability on the topic. Such lack of proof, or in other words, supporting credentials, definitely raised my suspicions when it came to deciding whether or not this claim was truly authentic. 

However, in the first few sentences of Glanville's article, he references a 2010-2016 Institute for Family Studies (IFS) survey, that polls men and women on their current, or previous marital status. And, "[according] to the General Social Survey, men are more likely to cheat than women, with 20% of men and 13% of women reporting having sex with someone other than their partner while still married" (Discreet Investigation & Security). 

By clicking on the provided embedded link in the primary article, I was taken directly to a 2018 IFS article titled, "Who Cheats More? The Demographics of Infidelity in America" by Wendy Wang, where the statistic's provided. On the IFS website's "About Us" page, Wendy R Wang, Ph.D,  is described as the director of IFS and credited with "... regularly [contributing] op-eds and commentary to major media outlets, including The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal..." (IFS). Therefore, given Wang's impressive list of provided credentials, my opinion on the accuracy of the original claim definitely swayed more so to true rather than false.

Finally, just to be absolutely sure, I looked up the same claim in Google and found the BBC article, "Are Men Really More Unfaithful Than Women?" by Fiona Woods. In the article, Woods further confirms the above statistic, while simultaneously challenging it with the help of Dr. Catherine Mercer, head of analysis at the Nastal study and recurring publisher in the National Institute of Health (NIH). In her argument, Mercer points out a key flaw in previous studies hoping to answer this question, polyamorous/open couples are rarely, if ever acknowledged. Therefore, "this method can give the impression of infidelity where none has occurred" (Dr. Catherine Mercer). 

All this to say, I believe that the original claim, that "men cheat more than women" is mostly true, yet too generalized of a statement. As Dr. Mercer notes, marriages exist in multiple different forms, and simply stating that all men cheat on their wives more would be misleading the public through failing to acknowledge the multifaceted experience of marriage.