Thaindian News

London, April 28 (IANS) Powerful women are just as likely as their male counterparts to commit adultery because sheer self-confidence drives them to do it, a study says.

According to the study, both power drunk men and women were more likely to have affairs than their junior colleagues because they had high self-esteem.

Researchers at Tilburg University in Holland, led by psychologist Joris Lammers, found that women with powerful jobs were just as likely to stray sexually as men.

“There’s been a lot of research indicating gender is the key factor but none of these studies have been done on powerful women,” Lammers was quoting as saying by The Telegraph.

“As more and more women are in greater positions of power and are considered equal to men, then familiar assumptions about their behaviour may also change. This may lead to increased negative behaviours among women,” he said.

His team studied 1,561 professionals. Of these, 58 percent had non-management positions, 22 percent were supervisors, 14 percent were in middle management and six percent were in senior management.

All were asked about past affairs and their desire to cheat. Their levels of power and self-confidence were measured, and they were asked how often they travelled for business.

Whether a person was male or female made no difference to their behaviour, Lammers said.

Rather, the biggest factors influencing whether or not they were unfaithful were their levels of power and self-esteem.