Half of men would forgive their female partner's infidelity, as long as it was with another woman, according to a new study on cheating.

Women, however, were less likely to forgive and forget if their boyfriend had been with another man, the University of Texas at Austin study showed.

Researchers asked 718 college students to imagine being in a long-term relationship and what their reactions would be to several different cheating scenarios².

They found that overall, 50 percent of men would likely continue a relationship with a woman who had a dalliance with another woman, while 22 percent said they could forgive betrayal with another man.

For women, the results were reversed. If their boyfriend cheated with another woman, 28 percent said they'd keep him around, but only 21 percent said they would if he cheated with another man.

Published this month in the journal "Personality and Individual Differences," the study concluded the participant's reactions were based on basic jealousy³ instincts.

"A robust⁴ jealousy mechanism⁵ is activated⁶ in men and women by different types of cues -- those that threaten paternity in men and those that threaten abandonment in women," said Jaime Confer, the study's lead author and a PhD candidate in evolutionary⁷ psychology⁸.

Men, they said, felt more threatened by a rival male because of paternity uncertainty⁹, whereas they saw a female partner's homosexual affair as "an opportunity to mate with more than one woman simultaneously¹⁰, satisfying men's greater desire for more partners."Mark Cloud, one of the study co-authors, stressed in an interview that the homosexual infidelity scenario¹ they asked participants to imagine was very rare in reality.

So, the researchers asked participants about their real experiences with cheating. There again, men showed less tolerance¹¹ of cheating than women.

"Men were significantly more likely than women to have ended their actual relationships following a partner's affair," according to the study.

一项关于出轨的新研究显示，半数男人能原谅女友的不忠，只要外遇对象是个女人。

但是，女性则不太可能原谅并忘记男友“跟男人交往过”的事实。该研究是由德州大学奥斯汀分校进行的。

研究人员先让718位大学生假想他们现在处于一段长期的感情关系中，然后让他们设想一下他们对几种不同的出轨场景的反应。

研究人员发现，总体来说，在发现女友和另外一个女人有段风流事之后，半数的男性还是愿意继续跟女友处下去；但是只有22%的男性说他们能原谅女友背着自己跟另外一个男人交往。

然而，对于女性来说，情况恰恰相反。如果男友背着自己跟另外一个女人交往，28%的女人还是会继续将这个男人留在身边；但是如果男友背着自己跟一个男人交往，那么只有21%的女性愿意继续跟男友处下去。

这项发表在本月的《个性和个体差异》杂志上的研究得出结论：受访者的反应是出于嫉妒本能的反应。

该研究的主要作者、进化心理学博士生杰米?康弗说：“激发男性和女性体内的强劲嫉妒机制的诱因不同，对于男性来说，诱因是那些可以威胁他们父亲身份的因素；而对于女性来说，诱因则是那些可以导致她们被抛弃的因素。”

研究人员说，男性会感到来自男性对手的威胁是因为这给他的父亲身份增加了不确定性，而对于女友的同性恋外遇，他们会把这当成是“同时和一个以上女人发生关系、满足他们想拥有更多伴侣的强烈欲望的机会”。

该研究的合著者之一，马克?克劳德在一次采访中强调他们让受访者设想的同性恋出轨场景在现实生活中极为罕见。

因此，研究人员询问了受访者的真实的“被背叛经历”。结果再次显示，男性比女性更难容忍背叛。

该研究显示，“发现恋人有出轨行为后，男性决定分手的可能性比女性大很多。”