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Stereotypical portrayals of the academy depict a progressive and inclusive institution, particularly in the social sciences, disciplines that engage with social and political topics including inequality. This article, however, details the extent to which the formal structures and informal culture of academic social science continue to reflect men's bodies and lived experiences. Specifically, I draw on autoethnographic observations and personal reflections to demonstrate the valorization of extreme bodily strength and stamina, principal components of contemporary masculinity seemingly at odds with the scholarly endeavors of the ivory tower. Additionally, I reflect on the harms proliferated in this environment including physical, emotional, and economic violence; trauma; and the persistence of macro-level patterns of inequality.

Recent years have seen great interest in the relationship between relative earnings and marital outcomes. Using data from the 1997 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, I examine the effect of relative earnings on infidelity, a marital outcome that has received little attention. Theories of social exchange predict that the greater one's relative income, the more likely one will be to engage in infidelity. Yet, emerging literature raises questions about the utility of gender-neutral exchange approaches, particularly when men are economically dependent and women are breadwinners. I find that, for men, breadwinning increases infidelity. For women, breadwinning decreases infidelity. I argue that by remaining faithful, breadwinning women neutralize their gender deviance and keep potentially strained relationships intact. I also find that, for both men and women, economic dependency is associated with a higher likelihood of engaging in infidelity; but, the influence of dependency on men's infidelity is greater than the influence of dependency on women's infidelity. For economically dependent persons, infidelity may be an attempt to restore relationship equity; however, for men, dependence may be particularly threatening. Infidelity may allow economically dependent men to engage in compensatory behavior while simultaneously distancing themselves from breadwinning spouses.

AbstractThis article provides an overview of research on infidelity in an effort to synthesize past studies and orient future studies. It begins with infidelity estimates, followed by a synopsis of evolutionary explanations prominent in both popular and academic writing. Despite the potential utility of evolutionary arguments, I argue that infidelity needs to be understood as a dynamic social process subject to influence by the context in which it is embedded. This conceptualization urges scholars to attend to the component, proximate, and psychological factors that affect one's decision to engage in infidelity. Accordingly, I categorize empirical infidelity research in this manner. I conclude by addressing new developments and avenues for future research.

To date, the prevailing explanation for gender differences in infidelity has been evolutionary. Adaptive pressures lead men to seek sexual variety and, consequently, take advantage of opportunities for extramarital sex more than women. However, an often‐overlooked component of the evolutionary perspective is the way in which social context influences behavior. Thus, we extend previous theoretical accounts by examining the ways in which opportunity is facilitated or constrained by experiences of tokenism. The authors find, for White men, who tend to report favorable treatment in female‐dominated work, opportunity is positively associated with infidelity. For non‐White men, who report poor treatment in female‐dominated work, occupational sex composition and infidelity are negatively associated. For White and non‐White women, occupational sex composition is unrelated to infidelity.

A handful of studies conducted in the 1980s and 1990s find that undergraduate students perceive unmarried people less favorably than married people. The present research describes two experimental studies that revisit and extend this work by examining the extent to which perceptions of singles depend on marital history, gender, and race, both of which employ a more diverse sample of Americans via Amazon's Mechanical Turk (MTurk). Black Americans are less likely to marry, more likely to divorce, and less likely to remarry than their White counterparts; Black women are less likely to marry than Black men; and Black women contend with nuanced stereotypes that portray them as strong, independent, and self-sufficient. These differences suggest race may shape beliefs about singles, and that racialized differences may be gendered. In Study 1, respondents rated a married or never married man or woman across a range of characteristics. In Study 2, respondents rated a White man, White woman, Black man, or Black woman who was either married, never married, or divorced. Across both studies, regression models indicate singles were evaluated more negatively than married people. Moreover, divorced Black women were perceived more positively on several measures compared to divorced members of other groups. For the most part, however, the magnitude of the singlism effect did not vary by marital history (never married or divorced), gender, or race. We note that null findings regarding gender and race are often relegated to the file drawer, but that this practice distorts the results of systematic reviews and perpetuates the misconception that groups of people (e.g., men and women, Blacks and Whites) are vastly different from one another, a belief that undergirds and justifies inequality.