Couples are more likely to cheat when a woman out-earns her husband

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Couple Almost Kissing

Flickr / Jose Maria Cuellar

Fidelity in a marriage can be influenced by the household breadwinner.

When a woman out-earns a man in a heterosexual relationship, it can influence more than just who's in charge of the household finances.

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According to Farnoosh Torabi, author of "When She Makes More: 10 Rules for Breadwinning Women," in relationships where the woman is the breadwinner, both men and women are more likely to cheat.

A 2010 study conducted by Cornell University looked at "18-28-year-old married and cohabiting couples who had been together for more than a year," and found that "men who were entirely dependent on their female partner's salary were five times more likely to cheat than men who made an equal amount of money," Torabi writes.

The same is not true when the man out-earns the woman. In fact, the opposite is true.

According to the study, when a woman is dependent on a man's salary, she is less likely to cheat. Women who rely entirely on a man's salary are half as likely to cheat as women who earn the same amount as their partner.

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As Torabi points out, this means that women - like their male partners - are also more likely to cheat when the woman is the breadwinner. There is a greater chance of infidelity on both sides of the relationship when the woman earns more.

However, the study results say men are least likely to cheat when the woman makes approximately three-quarters of the man's salary.

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