研究:"經濟弱勢男"更易出軌

Men who earn less than their female partners are more likely to cheat on them, a study published on Monday found.

Cheating may be a man's way of trying to restore his gender identity when he feels it is under threat, Christin Munsch, a sociology doctoral candidate at Cornell University, says in the study, which she authored and presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association.

"Making less money than a female partner may threaten men's gender identity by calling into question the traditional notion of men as breadwinners," Munsch said.

Indeed, the study found that infidelity dramatically increased when the man earning less than his female partner is Latino, probably because breadwinner status is "one of the defining features of Hispanic masculinity."

Then again, the same study found that men whose partners were more dependent on them were also more likely to cheat, making it a lose-lose situation for women.

It's different for girls, though. Overall, women are half as likely to cheat as men anyway, whatever the circumstances, the study found.

"Women's femininity is not defined by their breadwinner status, nor is it defined by sexual conquest. Therefore, economic dependency does not serve as a threat to women," Munsch says.

The study indicates ways to prevent one's partner cheating without giving up the well-paid day job. Both sides being satisfied in a relationship is a sure-fire way to make infidelity disappear, and getting your partner to go to church or the mosque or temple regularly is another: the more regularly an individual attends a religious service, the less likely he or she is to cheat, the study says.

Looking for a partner in a university library, lab or lecture might also be an idea because, the study says, "the more education one reports, the less likely he or she is to engage in infidelity."

本週一公佈的一項研究發現，收入低於女伴的男性在感情上出軌的可能性更大。

康奈爾大學社會學博士生克里斯汀•穆切在她撰寫的研究報告中稱，男人在感覺自己的“男權”地位受到威脅後，出軌可能是他挽回尊嚴的一種方式。克里斯汀博士在美國社會學協會的年會上提交了該研究報告。

穆切說：“經濟上處於弱勢地位會威脅到男人的性別認同感，因爲這有悖於男性是家中經濟支柱的傳統觀念。”

研究發現，這一現象在拉美人中最爲突出，這可能是因爲擔當家中經濟支柱是“拉美男性男子氣質的決定性因素之一。”

這一研究還發現，即便男性在經濟上處於主導地位，他們對伴侶不忠的可能性還是更大，這讓女性面臨兩難境地。

然而女性的情況則有所不同。研究發現，總體來看，無論比伴侶掙得多還是少，女性出軌的可能性爲男性的一半。

穆切說：“女性氣質不是由經濟地位決定的，和性徵服也無關。所以，經濟上對伴侶的依賴不會對女性造成威脅。”

該研究還提供了既可防止伴侶出軌又不用放棄高薪工作的幾個辦法。夫妻雙方感情穩定是杜絕出軌的重要保障，另外經常和伴侶一起去教堂、清真寺院或寺廟也是一個好辦法。研究稱，一個人參加宗教儀式的次數越多，出軌的可能性越小。

沒有伴侶的人不妨去大學圖書館、試驗室或講座上試試，因爲研究發現，“一個人受教育程度越高，出軌的可能性越小。”

Vocabulary:

doctoral candidate:博士生

call into question: 使……受到質疑

sure-fire:準不會有錯的