Unfaithful men are prone to splurging on lavish gifts for their mistresses, according to the accepted wisdom.
But a new study suggests that this long-held assumption is somewhat wide of the mark.
Experts have discovered that men do not necessarily spend more on presents for an illicit lover than for their committed partner.
Instead, both men and women spend more on maintaining long-term relationships, they found.
Researchers from the University of Colorado carried out three studies to investigate the topic.
In the first a total of 139 participants were asked to imagine themselves in various relationship scenarios.
In each, they were instructed to imagine spending on a gift for a specific romantic partner - either to maintain an ongoing relationship or start a new one.
Unfaithful men are prone to splurging on lavish gifts for their mistresses, according to the accepted wisdom (stock image)
But a new study suggests that this long-held assumption is somewhat wide of the mark. Experts have discovered that men do not necessarily spend more on presents for an illicit lover than for their committed partner (stock photo)
In the hit film Love Actually features a celebrated storyline where a man is decidedly more generous to a woman who isn’t his wife. Design agency boss Harry (right) - played by the late Alan Rickman - famously buys a gold necklace for his flirtatious secretary
The second study involved asking 233 participants to recall their own experiences in both committed and extramarital relationships, including the typical cost of gifts they had received.
The third study asked 151 people to guess how much they thought others would spend on gifts in different relationship scenarios.
Analysis revealed that people were willing to spend more money on maintaining a committed relationship than to initiate or maintain an affair.
They also showed that, when people were asked to recall gifts they had received, there was no significant difference in the cost of gifts - contradicting the stereotype that people spend more extravagantly on affair partners.
Finally, people expected both men and women to spend more on gifts to maintain committed relationships than on extramarital ones.
Writing in the journal Evolutionary Behavioural Sciences the team said: ‘A common trope in popular media is that men who are having romantic affairs tend to spend more lavishly on their extrapair partner than their inpair partner.‘
The present research suggests that gift giving may help signal a long-term commitment to existing inpair partners more so than serving as an enticement for prospective, or existing, extrapair partners.’
The hit film Love Actually features a celebrated storyline where a man is decidedly more generous to a woman who isn’t his wife - design agency boss Harry (played by the late Alan Rickman) famously buys an expensive gold necklace as a Christmas present for his flirtatious secretary while getting his wife a Joni Mitchell CD.