Motivational Poster - Infidelity: Too Much Power Can Make You a Real Weiner

Thanks for making Weiner Wednesday a smashing success! We've had record breaking traffic to the site thanks to the great articles from Drs. Charlotte and Patrick Markey and Dr. Justin Lehmiller. We'll end the day with one more bit of research on infidelity that is directly applicable to the Weiner affair:

According to a recent study, power, not gender, predicts infidelity. The sex difference we see in cheating (e.g., the abundance of Arnolds, Tigers, and Weiners) is a function of power differentials; that men tend to have higher status in many facets of our society. Furthermore, the association between power and infidelity is not due to the personalities of successful people, like risk-taking, nor caused by their increased separation from their partners (like business travel).

Update-- 6/13/11: Here's a link to an NPR story about this article, including an interview with Dr. Joris Lammers (one of the authors of this study) and Dr. Jon Maner.

Update-- 11/13/11: Due to the investigation regarding the veracity of some of Deiderik Stapel's research, please be cautious in your interpretation of these findings.

Lammers, J., Stoker, J. I., Jordan, J., Pollmann, M. M. H., & Stapel, D. A. (2011). Power increases infidelity among men and women. Psychological Science, 22, 1191-1197.