Both men and women cheat — regardless of race, age or stature, according to Terri Orbuch, author of Finding Love Again: 6 Simple Steps to a New and Happy Relationship. In fact, about 32 percent of married men and 20 percent of married women report being unfaithful, she said.
But when powerful men — most recently CIA Director General David Petraeus — admit to infidelity, we’re often taken aback. (Or maybe some of us aren’t that shocked, after all.)
Petraeus joins a long line of philanderers in prominent positions: Anthony Weiner, Eliot Spitzer, Bill Clinton and John Edwards, just to name a few.
But regardless of whether you’re surprised to hear these men strayed, the question is the same: Why?
Why do powerful men with such pivotal professions and important responsibilities commit adultery? Why do men with so much to lose — great positions, families and reputations — risk it all for a fling?
Power certainly may play a role. For instance, in a survey of 1,561 professionals, Joris Lammers, an assistant professor at Tilburg University, and colleagues found that the more power people had, the more likely they were to cheat. Plus, the more power people had, the more confident they were.
(They also found no gender differences in past cheating or the desire to cheat. Women were just as likely to cheat or want to cheat as men were.)
Initial research also points to fascinating brain findings when people are given just a fleeting sense of power. Lammers told NPR, “You can see the brain structure associated with positive things, with rewards, is just much more activated than the part that is steered toward preventing the bad things from happening.”
The piece also talks about interesting research in college students, which found that when both male and female students were given a temporary sense of power, they tended to flirt more with a stranger of the opposite sex who sat next to them.
According to Orbuch, the sheer presence of temptation may explain why powerful men cheat. Power – and all that comes with it, such as wealth and fame – is attractive to many women, she said. And, sometimes, these women can become aggressive with their advances, she said.
Read more: Psych Central
