A new study in the journal Royal Society Open Science reveals that women have little trouble picking out cheating men from the pack. Men, on the other hand, have a much harder time reading unfaithful women.
Researchers at the University of Western Australian rounded up images of 101 Caucasian men and 88 women, who revealed to the scientists whether or not they had cheated on their partner or "poached" another's in the past.
Next, they gathered 1,500 heterosexual, white adults to analyze each photograph and rank the faces on a scale where a rating of one indicated a face that is "not at all likely to be unfaithful," while a 10 is "extremely likely" to fool around. The photos were also rated by attractiveness, trustworthiness and how masculine or feminine they appeared.
Experts found that both men and women were capable of predicting a man's infidelity — but neither could reliably asses a woman's.
Men with more "masculine" features were more likely to be pegged as cheaters by both men and women — and rightfully so: More of these men had indeed cheated or poached women already in relationships.
The scientists suggest that our tendency to believe a hottie is more likely to stray may be an evolutionary defense mechanism, encouraging women to avoid flaky fellas, and men to be wary of other guys who might be trying to woo their ladies.
On the flip side, the female's features seemed to belie her level of faithfulness, regardless of how "feminine" she appeared. Popular perception that women are less prone than men to cheat may have something to do with the results, even though it's not necessarily true.
He also warns that women under 35 these days feel more "agency" to sneak around on their partners, and that could be thanks to our culture of sexual freedom.