David Petraeus Affair: Why Do Powerful Men Cheat More Than Powerful Women?

Gen. David Petraeus' resignation and admission of an extramarital affair Friday caught plenty of people off guard, but for many of us, the story sounded all too familiar. From FDR's long-hidden affair with a younger woman to Bill Clinton's infamous admission of infidelity with a White House intern and countless others in between, how many times have we seen this narrative play out before?

It was the "heard it before" element of the Petraeus story that led HuffPost columnist Lisa Belkin to wonder, "What is it about powerful men and sex?" Why do relatively few powerful women get caught up in sex scandals? In a HuffPost blog, she wrote:

Is sex so fundamentally different for each gender that men see it as exerting their influence, while women somehow succumb to it? Have we simply not reached the point where there are enough women in positions of power, a critical mass that will make cheating an equal opportunity perk of office -- men do this because they can, and women don't because they can't... yet? Or are women just more moral than men?

With Belkin's blog post in mind, we asked our followers on Facebook and Twitter why they thought powerful men seem to cheat more than powerful women. Click through to see their responses, then head to the comments to share your thoughts.

Related on HuffPost:

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/12/david-petraeus-affair_n_2118978.html

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