Why your partner is more likely to cheat if they worry about their sexual performance

Why your partner is more likely to cheat if they worry about their sexual performance - It sounds unlikely, but men and women are more likely to cheat on their partners if they worry about their performance in bed, according to a study.

Sexual anxiety and a lack of concern about consequences - such as pregnancy and sexually-transmitted diseases - are the main ingredients of infidelity, researchers found.

Women who worry about their ability to stay aroused and orgasm are 8 per cent more likely to stray for each sexual concern.

Sexual anxiety: Men and women are more likely to cheat on their partners if they worry about their performance in bed, according to researchers

Men, on the other hand, are 6 per cent more likely to cheat for each worry, such as impotence and premature ejaculation, that they have.

Lead researcher Kristen Mark, of the University of Indiana, said: 'People who score high on sexual anxiety may feel less pressure when they're engaging with a person who doesn't know their sexual history.'

The researchers surveyed 506 monogamous men and 416 monogamous women with an average age of 31, half of whom were married.

They were each questioned about their sexual behaviour, the quality of their relationship and whether they had cheated on their current partner.

Mark and her team found that 23 per cent of men and 19 per cent of women had partaken in a sexual act with another person that could jeopardise their relationship should their partner find out.

Men who admitted to becoming easily sexually excited were at least 4 per cent more likely to cheat, the researchers found. Sexual excitement has no bearing on women's likelihood to stray.

'People who score high on sexual anxiety may feel less pressure when they're engaging with a person who doesn't know their sexual history'

Perhaps unsurprisingly, being unhappy in a relationship was found to increase the chances of a woman straying by between 2.6 and 2.9 per cent.

People worried whether their partner might cheat on them should stop focusing on what job they do and how often they are outside the home.

and instead consider how he or she behaves in the bedroom, according to Mark who argues that a person's sexual personality is more important than demographic or relationship factors.

'We found that some of those (social) demographics were important,' she told Live Science.

'But once you included all these other variables, we realised quickly that they weren't nearly as important, and their relative importance disappeared.'

The study, which was published in the journal Archives of Sexual Behavior, also found that cheaters were half as likely to be religious, and more likely to be employed. ( dailymail.co.uk )