CHICAGO, Oct. 29 (UPI) -- While far more men admit cheating on their spouses in the United States, women are gaining ground, a new study finds.
Researchers at the University of Chicago reported that in 2006 15 percent of the women surveyed admitted to at least one adulterous affair, up from 5 percent in 1991, the Chicago Tribune reports. The percentage of men who admitted cheating grew from 20 percent to 28 percent in the same time period.
Among the younger set, one in seven wives under 35 and one in five husbands admit cheating.
A non-academic expert, private detective Richard Grove, has noticed an increase.
"People are looking for an outlet," he told the Chicago Sun-Times. "They come home, they argue with one another about money, then they're looking for comfort in the arms of another. We used to get maybe a half a dozen cases a month and about two dozen inquiries. The inquiries and the frequency have probably increased by 50 percent in the past year."
David Atkins, a University of Washington researcher who analyzed the data, said that a big increase in cheating followed the introduction of Viagra in 1998.
