With so many high-profile men being busted for cheating over the past few months–Tiger Woods, David Letterman and Josh Duhamel to name a few–coupled with many jilted women we know who have dealt with an unfaithful spouse, we decided to explore the topic.

According to the Book of Odds, the chances that a married or co-habitating man will cheat is about 1 in 4 and the chances that he’ll cheat again are around 1 in 2!

We turned to Terri Orbuch, Ph.D, an author and director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded Early Years of Marriage Project, the longest-running study of married couples ever conducted for some insight. According to her research, the figure for men who cheat is even more alarming: 32% of married men — or 1 in 3 – admit to cheating.

So why do men cheat? Dr. Orbuch cites three of the major reasons:

- Not enough satisfying sex. Having satisfying sex–not the same as frequent sex, she notes–with their wife is extremely important to men. Without it, they become extremely discontent in the marriage.

- Not enough affective affirmation. Men become extremely distressed and unhappy in their marriages when they don’t get enough attention from or feel unnoticed by their wives. This is called “affective affirmation”–and men need it far more than women do…because women get it regularly from people other than their spouse. Affective affirmation consists of compliments, support, encouragement, and subtle (nonsexual) rewards, such as tender physical endearments like a kiss or hand squeeze.

- Poor communication. When couples haven’t developed healthy ways to share information and concerns, conflict can build up, along with negative feelings such as resentment, mistrust, hurt, and anger. For both men and women, Dr. Orbuch’s study found that establishing patterns for dealing with conflict and for staying in tune with each other’s inner life was key to relationship longevity and fidelity. Why? Because communication makes two people feel like  they’re “in this together”–the antithesis to cheating.

Ask a high-profile guy like Tiger Woods or David Letterman why they cheat and they’ll likely give you the same answers…plus they have more opportunities for temptation. “Let’s face it,” Dr. Orbuch says. “Women throw themselves at powerful men. A powerful man can be with a young, gorgeous, willing, discreet woman whenever he likes. He has to dig deeper into his character–and more frequently–than Joe Regular to repel the temptation to stray ‘just this once.’”