Traditionally we’ve had the ‘seven year itch’

From footballers to film stars, it seems that newspaper headlines are full of infidelity revelations.

MaritalAffiar.co.uk, who specialise in marital dating market surveys has completed a study to understand which people in society are most likely to have an affair.

Paul Graham, founder of Maritalaffair.co.uk, said, ‘We all know affairs take place, but we want to understand whether some people are more at risk of having an affair than others.

Mr Graham added, ‘To cheat or to have an affair may be something that is in certain type of people, it may be genetic or it may be developed as a result of the environment we live in and the company we keep.’

The results showed that those looking to have an affair are statistically most likely to be male, aged 46 to 50, living in the south east, educated to a degree level, earning between £20,000 and £30,000 and either self-employed or working with computers and engineering.

Many of those who had affairs or were considering doing so blamed boredom and lack of intimacy as their main motivation, another 8 per cent said they chose to cheat because of the thrill of getting caught.

Interestingly, the study found that 66 per cent of the males questioned thought that an affair could help save their marriage. 54 per cent of women agreed that this was true.

Mr Graham said, ‘Traditionally we’ve had the ‘seven year itch’ but now it seems that this has shortened and those married for a short amount of time are most at risk of being cheated on.’

By Lauren King