study shows that men who are 100% economically dependent on their spouses were most at risk for cheating, three times more at risk than women married to male breadwinners.

This new study, showcased in the June issue of the American Sociological Review, found that men who are 100% economically dependent on their spouses were most at risk for cheating, three times more at risk than women married to male breadwinners.

While, on average, women who are completely financially dependent on their husbands face about a 5% chance that they will stray, there is about a 15% chance that a man married to a female breadwinner will cheat, the study concluded.
"I think it has to do with our cultural notions of what it means to be a man and what ... the social expectations are for masculinity," the study author, Christin Munsch, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Connecticut, told CNN.
Being economically dependent on their wives may threaten their manhood, Munsch said, and having an affair is a way to re-establish their masculinity, even if it's all done subconsciously.
"There's plenty of great literature showing how when men in particular undergo gender identity threats, they engage in hypermasculine behaviors," she said.
"Sex is one of the most sort of gender-typed behaviors. You think of men as ... (having) sex on the brain. They can engage in a behavior associated with masculinity."