One of the oldest accepted notions is that men are more likely to stray than women. But scientists now believe that it is a person's power, rather than gender, that plays the greatest role in infidelity。

A team of researchers conducted an anonymous Internet survey of 1,561 adults. They found that there is a higher risk of unfaithfulness in people of positions of power, no matter the sex。

The respondents varied greatly in levels of power - 58 percent had a non-management function; 22 percent had a management function; 14 percent were in middle-management and six percent were in a top management position。

The researchers measured power by asking participants to indicate how powerful they thought they were. Researchers also measured other variants such as confidence, distance and the perception of risk as it relates to infidelity。

The study revealed two key discoveries to why powerful people cheat. First, there is a strong association between power and confidence, and the amount of confidence a person has is the strongest link between power and unfaithfulness. Second, the researchers found that among powerful people, gender made no difference in past digressions。

And, the study said, we as a society do not hear about more women cheating because there simply aren't as many women in positions of power as their male counterparts。

有个流传很久的说法，就是男人比女人更容易出轨。但是如今科学家认为，造成不忠的最重要原因是一个人的权力大小，而非性别。

受试者在职权等级方面差别很大——58%的人从事非管理性质的工作;22%的人从事管理相关工作;14%的人是中层管理者而6%者属于单位高层。

研究人员要求受试者回答他们自认为拥有多少权力来测量受试者的职权大小。研究人员还测量了其他可变因素，例如自信程度、距离因素以及风险感受度(最后一项同不忠息息相关)。

该研究揭示出两个能够回答为何有权者更易出轨的关键发现。第一，权力和自信联系密切，一个人的自信程度是将权力和不忠联系起来的最重要一环。第二，研究人员发现，职权大的人群中，出轨率在两个性别中并没有什么不同。

研究还称，社会上之所以鲜见女人出轨，只是因为并没有很多女人和男人一样居于高位。