Blame your Genes for Infidelity

By Vasudha Bhat , Onlymyhealth editorial team

Nov 25, 2014

Gene Responsible for Infidelity A new study found that women with variations in a particular gene are more likely to cheat on their partners. The study claimed that unfaithfulness can be inherited.

It was found by the researchers at the University of Queensland in Australia that infidelity could be inherited by parents and grandparents.

The single gene that has the variations which makes a woman likely to cheat on her partner was also indentified by researchers.

Lead author of the study and research fellow at the university’s school of psychology said Dr Brendan Zietsch "our research clearly shows that people's genetic make-up influences how likely they are to have sex with someone outside their main partnership".

Zietsch added "isolating specific genes is more difficult because thousands of genes influence any behaviour and the effect of any individual gene is tiny. "But we did find tentative evidence for a specific gene influencing infidelity in women. More research will be needed to confirm this finding".

As reported by the Telegraph, in this study data on more than more than 7,300 twins aged 18 to 49, all who had been in a long-term relationship were examined. Almost 9.8 percent of men and 6.4 percent of women had two or more sexual partners in the last 12 months.

The differences were then compared by the researchers between identical twins, who shared all their genes, and non-identical twins, who did not share all their genes. It was seen in the results that 63 percent of men and 40 percent of women showed unfaithful behaviour and it was down to inherited genes.

It was also found that women who had certain variations in a gene called AVPRIA were more likely to cheat. This gene was responsible in the production of hormone argnine vasopressin which regulates the social behaviour and has been linked to differences in philandering behaviour in voles.