[h=1]Women beat men in the adultery stakes: Ladies who cheat have 2.3 secret lovers compared to 1.8 for the blokes[/h]    By  
David Baker
  
 
When it comes to playing away women tend to rack up more lovers than men, according to self-confessed adulterers.
Research  into the behaviour of 4,000 cheats claims women are more promiscuous,  having an average of 2.3 secret lovers compared to a mere 1.8 for men.
The  UK Adultery Survey 2012 found that once women decide to play away they  are far more likely to play the field in search of love.
 
  
Adultery: According to research women are more promiscuous among self confessed cheats
While  men claim the pursuit of sexual excitement, boredom with their  marriages and the need of an ego boost are the main reasons for  cheating, women say they are looking for emotional fulfillment, an  improvement to their self esteem and romance. 
Female adulterers are also far more prone to falling in love with their illicit lovers than their male equivalents.
Emily  Pope of Undercover Lovers, a dating site for married people seeking  affairs with some 600,000 members, said the results of the survey  challenged the commonly held view that men are more adulterous than  women.  
 
  [h=4][/h] 
 
 'Once they have made the huge  decision to have an affair, women have far more opportunity to actually  find someone to cheat with and are generally in control of deciding if  and when to consummate the relationship once they do,' she said.
The survey also found that women are likely to be the first to get itchy feet in a marriage. 
While  unfaithful men don’t have their first affair until almost six years of  married life the average female cheater strays just five years after  exchanging wedding vows. 
 
  
Playing away: Women tend to cheat as they look  for romance and emotional fulfillment while men said they play away in  the pursuit of sexual excitement and boredom with their marriages 
They are also usually younger than men when they stray with the average female adulterer starting at 37 compared to 42 for men.
Emily  added: 'More and more neurological research is revealing that male and  female brains are programmed differently when it comes to relationships.
'The  results of our survey bear this out, with our adulteresses seemingly  seeking something far more emotionally meaningful from their affairs  than their male partners.'
Both  sexes agree that monogamy is an unnatural state for humans even though  76 per cent of women and 67 per cent of men claim to still love the  spouse they are cheating on and more than 80 per cent of both sexes  intend to stay married.
However, the research also found that many adulterers are hypocrites. 
More  than 40 per cent of women and almost 30 per cent of male would ask for a  divorce if they discovered their spouse was having an affair.