The beginning of the year is a rough time for the institution of marriage. Ashley Madison, a dating site for people looking to start extramarital affairs, reported in a 2018 press release that January and February are the site’s biggest months for new signups. And in news that may or may not be related, divorce lawyers add that they see a surge in divorce filings after the holidays. But before it gets to that point, it’s worth taking a step back and looking at why people are unfaithful to begin with — especially women, whose affairs are often misreported or misunderstood.

It’s easy to fall back on old assumptions that men are more likely to cheat, with the usual list of justifications (like how they can’t “keep it in their pants”). That’s becoming more and more untrue as time goes on. “Traditionally, it’s been argued that women are more likely than men to cheat because they’re unhappy with the existing relationships, while men are more likely than women to cheat because they’re looking for sexual variety or an opportunity presented itself,” says, Zhana Vrangalova, Ph.D., a professor of human sexuality at NYU. “That’s still true to some extent today, but the gender gap in infidelity is closing among the newer generations.”

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“In older generations, men were much more likely to cheat than women, whereas in the current generation women and men are cheating at similar rates,” she adds. “And the current generation of men and women are more similar in their reasons for cheating than older generations.”

Read more: yahoo