hat almost 99 percent of married respondents and 94 percent of cohabitors expected fidelity from their spouse (54). A greater interest in sex was positively correlated with infidelity, as was the risk for once-married couples living in cities compared to living in other communities, thinking daily rather than weekly about sex, and living together before marriage. More time spent with the mate's family reduced the risk for infidelity. Being male increased the risk of infidelity by 79 percent; being African American raised it by 10 percent. Both married couples and those cohabiting expected fidelity from their mates. The only clear result from this study was that, "being subject to preferences, constraints, and opportunities, sexual behavior is social behavior" (59).
Olenick reported on this same survey and drew the conclusion that 11 percent of adults who had ever been married or had cohabited had been unfaithful (2000). Five percent of those who reported being married or cohabiting in the 12 months prior to the survey reported being unfaithful to their partner. For each year couples lived together, infidelity became more likely. The likelihood of infidelity was not enhanced by sexual opportunities in the workplace.
Contrary to Treas and Giesen's report that only between 1.5 percent and 3.6 percent of married people had sex with a second partner in the last year, figures he cited from studies performed between 1991 and 1994, (Treas and Giesen, 2000, 48), a report in Ebony(1998) suggests that nearly 75 percent of married men, or men involved in serious relationships, cheat. This is an astounding difference in numbers, so it makes it difficult to decide where the correct figure lies - presumable somewhere in between these two extremes.
The article in Ebony goes on to point out that men who cheat are doing so within the first three years of marriage, with married Black males advertising for no-strings-attached relatio...