Would you be more pissed if your partner cheated emotionally? Or sexually? Which one would put you over the edge enough to break-up? A study I found (Forgiveness or breakup: Sex differences in responses to a partner’s infidelity, by Todd K. Shackel, David M. Buss, and Kevin Bennett) says men and women respond differently to their partners’ infidelity. Men think it’s more disturbing when their women cheat sexually than emotionally. Women think it’s more disturbing when their male partners cheat on them emotionally. Men are more likely to break it off with their female partners when they cheat sexually and vice versa for women and their male partners. The authors suggest maybe this difference is based on evolution. When humans began, men wanted to find women who would carry their babies and spread their genes. Women wanted to find men who had the resources to take care of them and their offspring. (Things haven’t changed much, huh?) Now, let’s say a cavewoman cheats on her caveman sexually. If she gets knocked up by this new guy, her caveman now has to wait 9 months to spread his seed. That sucks for him. If she cheats emotionally, that doesn’t really change much for the caveman. On the other hand, let’s say a caveman cheats on his cavewoman sexually. If he gets these other women knocked up, that doesn’t really matter for his wifey. But if he cheats on her emotionally, he may invest more of his time hunting for his new gal, which leaves Mrs. Cavewoman and her babies depleted of resources. What do ya think?