Women with this gene more likely to cheat on their partners: Research Posted on 28 May 2015 at 19:51 When it comes to infidelity, men often get away with blaming their behaviour on the ‘biological urge’ to spread their seed. But recent research suggests that women may also inherit the impulse to cheat. In fact, scientists have found one gene in particular that seems to be linked to a woman’s likelihood of being unfaithful. A study published at the end of last year looked at 7,400 sets of twins in Finland aged between 18 and 49 in long-term relationships. Out of the participants, 9.8 percent of the men and 6.4 percent of women had had at least one affair in the past 12 months. The researchers then compared the difference in the rates of cheating between identical twins, who share all their genes, and non-identical twins, who don’t. The results showed that 63 percent of the variation in infidelity in men and 40 percent in women could be attributed to genetics. The gene in question is the vasopressin receptor gene, which is involved in creating trust, empathy and sexual bonding in animals, so it makes sense that this would have some kind of affect on sexual behaviour. But, interestingly, this gene appeared to have no effect on promiscuity in men. A lot of this research has focussed on the vole, a little rodent that has two closely related species with very different lifestyles – the prairie vole is monogamous, while the montane vole is sexually promiscuous. Researchers have found that the differences in the sexual behaviour of these two species can be explained by the different positioning of vasopressin receptors in their brains, which changes the hormones’ effects. So what does all this mean for your chance of being cheated on by your significant other? While more research needs to be done, the research could help biologists answer one their biggest questions: why, evolutionarily speaking, are women driven to cheat? For men, the benefits are clear, but for females, who can only give birth to a limited number of offspring, the perks are less obvious. Maybe it all comes down to the fact that, depending on our genes, for some of us, cheating just feels good, as Friedman explains: -(Science Alert)
