Men's higher sexual impulses responsible for their infidelity, new research claims

                      

It is a commonly-held belief that men are more likely to be guilty of sexual indiscretions than women.

However the previous idea that men give into temptations such as cheating because they lack self-control has been undermined by new research.

The Department of Psychology at the Texas A&M University has found that men are more susceptible to ‘sexual slip-ups’ than women because their sexual urges are far stronger, and not because they have less self-control, Science Daily reports.

The study suggests that the fact that men are more likely to pursue ‘forbidden’ romantic interests is simply due to stronger sexual impulses than women, a fact often assumed, but until now not backed by science. 

Published in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, the research investigated participants' real-life responses to temptation by asking about their past behaviour, as well as how their sexual impulses related to their self control by using a rapid-response test.

The participants were shown both good-looking and less attractive members of the opposite sex in quick succession, with each picture being rated as either ‘good for you’ or ‘bad for you.’

Men experienced a much higher impulse to accept the desirable people, regardless of whether they were rated as ‘good’ or ‘bad’.