Republican men who regularly attend religious services had the highest views of marriage fidelity, according to a new study
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Democratic men are more likely to have more lenient attitudes toward infidelity in marriage than Republican men and are more likely to admit to having sex outside their marriages, according to a new analysis.
"Contrary to what the headlines might suggest, Republican men are less likely to stray than other men," Brad Wilcox, a sociology professor and fellow at the Institute for Family Studies (IFS) wrote about the group's latest research. "That might be partly because, when it comes to attitudes about cheating, it’s actually Democrats who have become more accepting of extra-marital sex in recent years."
Wilcox's claim is based off data from the General Social Survey (GSS), "a nationally representative survey of adults in the United States conducted since 1972," according to its website. Researchers at IFS used GSS data to determine if there were any trends in the moral beliefs about marriage fidelity held by Democratic and Republican men who were married or had ever been married, between the ages of 18-55.
According to their analysis, there's been a decline in fidelity norms over the past decade among Democratic men in this group.
Democratic men were more likely than Republican men to report ever cheating on their spouses. (iStock)
In GSS surveys spanning 2010 to 2014, three-quarters of Democratic men (76%) sampled said extramarital sex was "always wrong." But from 2016-2022, just over half of Democratic men (53%) sampled said the same.
Republican men's attitudes toward marriage fidelity has stayed virtually the same over the same time period, according to Wilcox, with four in five Republican married men "embracing the classic norm" of staying faithful in marriage.
Men who identified as religious held stricter views than their peers about being faithful in marriage.
"Specifically, 90% of Republican ever-married men (18-55) who attend religious services once a month or more say extramarital affairs are always wrong, whereas only 74% of non-religious ever-married Republicans endorse the classic fidelity norm, according to the GSS (2010-2022)," Wilcox wrote.
Democratic men who regularly attend religious services were also significantly more likely than secular Democratic men to take a hard-line stance against infidelity in marriage, according to IFS's review of 2022 data.
The decline in fidelity norm is concentrated among secular Democrats (attend religious services less than once a month). Being conservative or religious helps here. pic.twitter.com/m7hi64ta6z
— Grant Bailey (@grantjbailey) December 12, 2024
When it came to reports of cheating on their own spouses, the two groups also differed.
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A new report looked at General Social Survey data to determine which group of married men, or once-married men, was more likely to cheat or find cheating more tolerable. (iStock)
Among the married or once-married men sampled from 2010-2022, 18% of Democrats reported having ever had sex outside of marriage, while 13% of Republicans said the same, according to IFS.
Reports of cheating on spouses were lower among religious Republican men.
According to Wilcox, 15% of secular Republicans reported engaging in extramarital sex compared to 10% of religious Republicans.
There was not a statistically significant difference between religious Democratic men and secular Democratic men in these surveys for reports of cheating from 2010-2022, IFS explained to Fox News Digital.
Kristine Parks is an associate editor for Fox News Digital. Read more.
