Power & Infidelity

It seems that every few months (or less) the breaking news of the day is related to some sex scandal involving a man of power and influence. Schwarzenegger, Woods, Weiner, Edwards. I could go on ... and on and on. Suffice it to say that the high road of power, wealth, and fame is lined with the dead or badly wounded careers of many powerful men, all ensnared by infidelity of some variety or another.

This has led many to wonder why men who seem to have it all--successful careers, promising futures, beautiful families--risk it all on a fling ... or two or three. Is it ego? Narcissism? Risk-taking? Opportunity? Or is it just a male power thing?

It's certainly a fair question. After all, we never hear Brian Williams opening Nightly News with lurid tales of the sexual indiscretions of Bachmann, Shriver, Wasserman Schulz, Couric, or Winfrey, do we? Powerful women simply don't seem to get caught up in lascivious scandals like their male counterparts do.

So how do we explain a study, soon to be published in Psychological Science, that has found that power, not gender, predicts infidelity? According to Joris Lammers, social psychology professor at Tilburg University and lead author of the newly published study on infidelity, the gender discrepancy we see among cheaters is a function of power differentials, not personality, risk-taking, increased travel, or gender. In a press release from Psychological Science, Lammers notes, "People often assume that powerful men may be more likely to cheat because they have risk-taking personalities or because of distance, such as frequent business trips that many powerful people go on. We found little correlation between either of the two."

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