This Week in Sex: Condoms vs. Jesus

New study gives you an excuse to stare at attractive strangers

Each month, some lady magazine or other has an article called “How to Keep Your Man From Cheating.” And it’s almost always the same trite advice (whipped cream on your nipples, surprise fellatio, etc.) they ran the month prior, and yet, it works. Because, trite or not, people really hate getting cheated on, and really want to figure out how to keep it from happening to them.

The results of a new study do should help. According to the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, if you’re out with your boy- or girlfriend, and you catch him or her staring at a beautiful stranger, your best bet is to let ‘em look.

The impulse towards wrist-slapping may have the opposite of the intended effect. By creating an aura of prohibition around infidelity, you are in fact making it more alluring, like the old adage about forbidden fruit.

Not surprisingly, the scientists responsible for the study are better at pointing out the pitfalls than they are with solutions. The best they got is to “[work] on enhancing relationship processes that naturally lead to decreased attention, such as focusing on positive aspects of one's partner.” So, get on that.