Breadwinning

This Time article says that men are more likely to cheat on women who outearn them.  One sentence that caught my attention was this one: "[The study] found that men who were completely dependent on their wives' incomes were five times likelier to cheat than those who contributed the same amount to the household finances."

It seems to me that many men who fall into the "completely dependent on their wives' incomes" category could have reasons for cheating that have nothing to do with the psychological effects of income disparity.  If a man isn't contributing anything to the household finances (and isn't in school, or a stay-at-home dad, or working an unpaid job, or looking for a new job), maybe he's bored.  Maybe a bored man with a lot of time on his hands is more likely to cheat than a man who is busy at work all day.

Also, isn't it possible that some of these men are with these women because of their incomes?  Maybe a guy has an older sugar mama and also gets some action on the side.  Again, the cheating may not be a direct result of the income disparity.

But putting all of that aside, based on this and other articles I've seen, it seems that people do expect problems to arise in relationships where the woman makes more than the man.  I wonder if the problems stem more from the women's expectations or the men's expectations.

P.S. The article also says that men who make a lot more money than their wives are also more inclined to cheat.  Maybe the article should just be called "Some Men Cheat!"