SOCIETY Men confess appetite for infidelity

Almost one-third of all men would cheat on their wives or girlfriends if they thought they could get away with it, a magazine survey claims. Some 32 per cent of men said they would have another affair if their partner could never discover their first one, according to the poll of 263 men aged 18-45.

The survey, for this month's edition of Esquire magazine, also showed that 46 per cent of those men who were already cheating on their partners would do it again. And 42 per cent of men have been unfaithful to their current partner or one in the past.

One man interviewed for the poll, a 25-year-old accountant called Steve, has had a steady girlfriend for 18 months but cannot stop picking up girls in clubs. "My girlfriend would kill me if she knew about it. I do it for the thrill of the chase. You've got to prove you can pull, even though you've got a girlfriend ... I think men are naturally polygamous. It's different for women."

But 43 per cent of respondents said: "It was worth it at the time but I wouldn't do it again."

Esquire editor Peter Howarth said: "It was noticeable that many men also thought they had been cheated on, so I don't think we are talking about unfaithful men but about unfaithful people."