In a study published in the journal Evolution and Human Behaviour, scientists from the University of Queensland claimed to have found that being a love rat can be transmissible from a parent to a child.
Nearly 7,500 Finnish twins and their siblings were involved in the study comparing infidelity rates between identical twins, who share 100 percent of their genes, and non-identical same-sex twins who share 50 per cent.
Over the preceding year, nearly 10 percent of men and around 6 percent of women had an affair. By showing that identical twins were more likely to share the same behaviour when it came to extramarital affairs, the researchers claimed to be able to assess the extent to which cheating has a genetic, rather than an environmental, component.
Genetic variation accounted for 61 percent of male cheating and 40 percent of female infidelity, the researchers found.
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Brendan Zietsch, who led the study, said: “Our research shows that people’s genetic make-up influences how likely they are to have sex with someone outside their main partnership.”
The bad news for anyone looking to screen future partners is that scientists have could not pinpoint which genes are involved.
Read full, original article: Infidelity may be influenced by genes, Australian scientists find
