Genes to blame for infidelity: Professor

A British professor has claimed that infidelity may be linked to genes.

According to a BBC report, Professor Tim Spector of the Twin Research Unit at London's St Thomas's Hospital has evidence pointing a finger to 'genetic material' for the infidelity of some people.

Prof Spector focussed on women and found that if one of a pair of twins had a history of infidelity, the chances of her sister following the same path were about 55%. He estimated that in general just 23% of women are not faithful.

The professor also found the tendency for both twins to be either faithful, or unfaithful, was strongest in identical pairs -- who have identical genes.

But he pointed out that unfaithfulness is also due to social factors and cannot exclusively be pinned on to genes.

"There is unlikely to be a single gene for anything like this. But there are likely to be genes that participate in it, a number of genes working together, it might be things like risk taking or those associated with personality," he said.

Agencies