This is the one thing that makes your partner more likely to be unfaithful

The more high powered the job, the more likely a person is to be unfaithful according to a new study in the journal of Sex Research.

The research, led by Social Psychologist Dr Joris Lammers, tested whether power was associated with increased infidelity by collecting data from 610 heterosexual Dutch men and women on popular general lifestyle websites (Men's Health and Marie Claire).

It found while 9 per cent of people in lower management reported being unfaithful, 24 per cent of people in middle management said they had engaged in infidelity and 37 per cent of people in top management had cheated on their partners.

Researchers suggested that scandals about powerful men being unfaithful were more common in the media simply because "men are still more likely than women to hold public office and other powerful positions," not because women were less likely to cheat.

The study concluded power changed people, noting: "Power psychologically releases people from the inhibiting effects of social norms and increases their tendency to express counter-normative forms of sexuality".

A recent survey from Match.com found 36 per cent of married adults in Britain admitted to having affairs.

More: The 10 most adulterous countries in the world