What’s worse: a sexual affair or falling in love?

A survey suggests gender dictates how men and women respond to physical or emotional infidelity, reports Sue Leonard.

NOBODY likes a cheater. The betrayal is utterly devastating, but what’s worse; a sexual affair, or an emotional one, where your partner falls in love? According to a new survey carried out by Elite Singles dating agency, your answer to this, depends largely on your gender.

Of the men surveyed 65% said that sexual unfaithfulness was worse, but the majority of women think emotional affairs are harder to deal with. So far, perhaps, so predictable, yet there’s a certain irony here too. Because, the survey found, men were far more likely than women to be sexually unfaithful (43% compared to 30% of women) .and women were more than twice as likely to fall in love with someone else. (27% compared to 12% of the men).None of this comes as much of a surprise to Gerry Hickey, a Dublin psychotherapist and counsellor.