The Science Has Spoken: Hot Women Have A Built-In Excuse for Cheating

Silly me. Here all this time I figured they just knuckle under after being relentlessly hit on by any guy who has a pulse. But no! It's in the genes.

BEAUTIFUL women who have affairs can now blame it on their sex hormones.

Women with higher levels of oestradiol, a form of oestrogen, not only look and feel more attractive, they are also more likely to cheat on their partners, a new study has found.

One-night-stands are not what interest these flirtatious females, who tend to have bigger breasts, relatively small waists and symmetrical faces as a result of their high levels of oestradiol.

Rather, they adopt a strategy of serial monogamy, say the researchers, led by Kristina Durante of the University of Texas.

"Without necessarily being consciously aware of their motives, highly attractive women are probably able to capitalise on their desirability and continually acquire a higher-quality long-term mate by trading up when the opportunity arises," said Dr Durante.

A James Cook University psychologist, Frances Quirk, said Marilyn Monroe, with her hourglass figure, was a classic example of a high-oestradiol female. "And her relationship history is a fairly good match," she said, noting the actress's marriages and affairs with increasingly important men.

Associate Professor Quirk said the study added to other evidence that hormones such as testosterone and oxytocin influenced the sexual and social behaviour of men and women. "The bottom line is that we are driven by our biology a lot of the time."

In a related study, it's been discovered most men are attracted to beautiful women and are quite likely to lie through their teeth to get them into bed.