Next time, your partner accuses you of infidelity, blame your parents and grandparents.
A recent study states that both men and women are more likely to cheat on their partners due to the genes they have inherited from their parents.
The study, which was published in the journal "Evolution and Human Behaviour" in October, has been conducted by researchers at the University of Queensland and colleagues from Sweden and Finland. The experts have examined the role of genes in human affairs.
They have also found one particular gene that makes women more vulnerable to committing adultery. But, it has been stated in the study that the effect is stronger in men than in women, The Strait Times reports.
Dr. Brendan Zietsch, a research fellow at the university's School of Psychology, led the study. Zietsch said: "Our research clearly shows that people's genetic make-up influences how likely they are to have sex with someone outside their main partnership. 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.''
Researchers have tried analyzing the scientific factors behind humans having affairs, but have not been able to reach a substantial conclusion till now. The study was conducted on 7,300 pairs of twins, aged between 18 and 49 years, who were in long term relationships, The Telegraph reports.
Among them, 9.8 percent of men and 6.4 percent of women had two or more sexual partners in the last one year. The difference in the rates was then compared between identical twins, who share the same genes, as well as non-identical twins, who do not share the same genes. With the help of genetic modelling, heritability was then estimated.
The assessment revealed that 63 percent of the infidelity characteristic that men exhibit and 40 percent that women do are due to inherited genes.
