Ellen Tarlin's third paragraph litany of various reasons is the inevitable heart of this discussion. She lists roughly a dozen different reasons, and that's pretty accurate (I'd guess, anyway, as I am decidedly male). I get irritated whenever people say the "women" do (insert behavior), because (insert reason), as if women were some monolithic entity, marching in emotional lockstep, etc. Likewise when people say the same about what "men" do, as if we're all alike and do things forthe same reasons.

So what's left to discuss? Why did Tim Noah bring this up in the first place?

Probably because the conventional thinking is pretty doggone anti-male. It goes like this.

Men cheat because, they are horny dogs. Maybe it's evolutionary, or maybe its the training they get from all the older horny dogs.

Women, on the other hand, cheat because they are lonely and unfulfilled within their relationship.

Now, granted, I know that the behavioral scientists seriously studying subjects like this don't think in such simplistic terms, but I think the general feelings of most people outside of academia run along these general lines.

I look forward to the discussion.