前言：cheat on 意指對夫或妻不忠；adultery 意指通姦；infidelity 意指不貞。
假如欺騙自己的伴侶，你會向研究人員承認此事嗎？這個問題是婚姻科學研究的重大挑戰之一，根據一篇去年發表於家庭心理學期刊的研究報告顯示，百分之一的受訪女性在面對面訪談中承認發生婚外情，如果以電腦問卷調查，竟有超過百分之六的受訪者認罪，於此同時，專家表示，出自女性雜誌的婚外情比率調查可能因為選樣偏差而高估，根據紐約時報康健版這篇報導，新的婚姻關係研究報告有驚人的發現，婚外情發生的比率正逐步上升中，尤其是年老男性與年輕夫妻。
根據以全國代表樣本追蹤一九七二年以來輿論與社會行為的米國社會調查的資料顯示，百分之十的已婚男女—男生百分之十二，女生百分之七—曾經發生婚外情，華盛頓大學的研究人員更發現，男性超過六十歲的婚外情比率從一九九一年的百分之二十上升至前年的百分之二十八，對於超過六十歲的女性來說，該項比率也從百分之五上升至百分之十五，研究人員發現新婚夫妻的轉變也很驚人，三十五歲以下男女承認對另一半不忠的比例分別從百分之十五與百分之十二上升至百分之二十與百分之十五。
專研性愛演化的羅格斯大學人類學家費雪認為，新藥或者新療法—例如：專治勃起障礙的威而剛與保持女性性衝動的睪固酮與雌激素補給品—似乎讓老年人有機會在晚年時期因為性能力改善而出軌，影響性態度與正常行為感知的網路色情則是年輕夫妻發生婚外情的因素之一，女性同胞出軌的明顯轉變是婚姻關係研究人員最感興趣的新議題，以上轉變是因為男人喜歡吹牛，而女人比較擅長說謊嗎？費雪醫師表示，男人認為女人不會說謊，女人則希望男人認為她們不說謊，因此性別在男女之間玩起一個小小的心理遊戲。
費雪醫師表示，婚外情在各種文化體系均屬常見，沒有證據顯示古老狩獵社會的女性比男性更忠貞，不貞的分歧可以文化壓力解釋，而非男女性衝動的差異，娶小姨的男人會讓人產生能力強的印象，潘金蓮般的女人則被斥責為淫蕩，以歷史的角度觀之，被孤立於農事或在家帶小孩的女人較少有機會發生婚外情，但在今天，已婚婦女更可能在辦公室加班至深夜或者到外地出差，甚至對待在家裡的婦女來說，手機、伊媚兒以及簡訊可以讓親密關係更易於成形，精神科醫師已經發現，越來越多的女性同胞開始談論以「電子」接觸為核心的八卦外遇。
當婚外情發生率上升時，大多數人普遍認為通姦不道德，並且認為自己不會有出軌的意念或者舉動，這項資料的另一個疑問在於無法分辨應答者是在哪個階段說謊：是婚姻關係發生問題前？還是脆弱感情終止時？「女性同胞的婚外情發生率會隨著時間增大」這種論點看似合理，不過，專家認為最值得探討的是感情關係以及婚姻聯繫，但是，從米國社會普查也可以看出某些令人鼓舞的趨勢，例如：夫妻相處的時間變長，已婚男女享受最活躍的性生活—米國夫妻每年做愛做的事的次數約有五十八次，比每週一次多一點點。
原始網址：NYTimes — Health
If you cheated on your spouse, would you admit it to a researcher?
That question is one of the biggest challenges in the scientific study of marriage, and it helps explain why different studies produce different estimates of infidelity rates in the United States.
Surveys conducted in person are likely to underestimate the real rate of adultery, because people are reluctant to admit such behavior not just to their spouses but to anyone.
In a study published last summer in The Journal of Family Psychology, for example, researchers from the University of Colorado and Texas A&M surveyed 4,884 married women, using face-to-face interviews and anonymous computer questionnaires. In the interviews, only 1 percent of women said they had been unfaithful to their husbands in the past year; on the computer questionnaire, more than 6 percent did.
At the same time, experts say that surveys appearing in sources like women’s magazines may overstate the adultery rate, because they suffer from what pollsters call selection bias: the respondents select themselves and may be more likely to report infidelity.
But a handful of new studies suggest surprising changes in the marital landscape. Infidelity appears to be on the rise, particularly among older men and young couples. Notably, women appear to be closing the adultery gap: younger women appear to be cheating on their spouses nearly as often as men.
“If you just ask whether infidelity is going up, you don’t see really impressive changes,” said David C. Atkins, research associate professor at the University of Washington Center for the Study of Health and Risk Behaviors. “But if you magnify the picture and you start looking at specific gender and age cohorts, we do start to see some pretty significant changes.”
The most consistent data on infidelity come from the General Social Survey, sponsored by the National Science Foundation and based at the University of Chicago, which has used a national representative sample to track the opinions and social behaviors of Americans since 1972. The survey data show that in any given year, about 10 percent of married people — 12 percent of men and 7 percent of women — say they have had sex outside their marriage.
But detailed analysis of the data from 1991 to 2006, to be presented next month by Dr. Atkins at the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies conference in Orlando, show some surprising shifts. University of Washington researchers have found that the lifetime rate of infidelity for men over 60 increased to 28 percent in 2006, up from 20 percent in 1991. For women over 60, the increase is more striking: to 15 percent, up from 5 percent in 1991.
The researchers also see big changes in relatively new marriages. About 20 percent of men and 15 percent of women under 35 say they have ever been unfaithful, up from about 15 and 12 percent respectively.
Theories vary about why more people appear to be cheating. Among older people, a host of newer drugs and treatments are making it easier to be sexual, and in some cases unfaithful — Viagra and other remedies for erectile dysfunction, estrogen and testosterone supplements to maintain women’s sex drive and vaginal health, even advances like better hip replacements.
“They’ve got the physical health to express their sexuality into old age,” said Helen E. Fisher, research professor of anthropology at Rutgers and the author of several books on the biological and evolutionary basis of love and sex.
In younger couples, the increasing availability of pornography on the Internet, which has been shown to affect sexual attitudes and perceptions of “normal” behavior, may be playing a role in rising infidelity.
But it is the apparent change in women’s fidelity that has sparked the most interest among relationship researchers. It is not entirely clear if the historical gap between men and women is real or if women have just been more likely to lie about it.
“Is it that men are bragging about it and women are lying to everybody including themselves?” Dr. Fisher asked. “Men want to think women don’t cheat, and women want men to think they don’t cheat, and therefore the sexes have been playing a little psychological game with each other.”
Dr. Fisher notes that infidelity is common across cultures, and that in hunting and gathering societies, there is no evidence that women are any less adulterous than men. The fidelity gap may be explained more by cultural pressures than any real difference in sex drives between men and women. Men with multiple partners typically are viewed as virile, while women are considered promiscuous. And historically, women have been isolated on farms or at home with children, giving them fewer opportunities to be unfaithful.
But today, married women are more likely to spend late hours at the office and travel on business. And even for women who stay home, cellphones, e-mail and instant messaging appear to be allowing them to form more intimate relationships, marriage therapists say. Dr. Frank Pittman, an Atlanta psychiatrist who specializes in family crisis and couples therapy, says he has noticed more women talking about affairs centered on “electronic” contact.
“I see a changing landscape in which the emphasis is less on the sex than it is on the openness and intimacy and the revelation of secrets,” said Dr. Pittman, the author of “Private Lies: Infidelity and the Betrayal of Intimacy” (Norton, 1990). “Everybody talks by cellphone and the relationship evolves because you become increasingly distant from whomever you lie to, and you become increasingly close to whomever you tell the truth to.”
While infidelity rates do appear to be rising, a vast majority of people still say adultery is wrong, and most men and women do not appear to be unfaithful. Another problem with the data is that it fails to discern when respondents cheat: in a troubled time in the marriage, or at the end of a failing relationship.
“It’s certainly plausible that women might have increased their relative rate of infidelity over time,” said Edward O. Laumann, professor of sociology at the University of Chicago. “But it isn’t going to be a huge number. The real thing to talk about is where are they in terms of their relationship and the marital bond.”
The General Social Survey data also show some encouraging trends, said John P. Robinson, professor of sociology and director of the Americans’ Use of Time project at the University of Maryland. One notable shift is that couples appear to be spending slightly more time together. And married men and women also appear to have the most active sex lives, reporting sex with their spouse 58 times a year, a little more than once a week.
“We’ve looked at that as good news,” Dr. Robinson said.
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