Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve heard about (if not listened to it 13 times already) Beyoncé’s new album, “Lemonade.” For half of the album, Bey sings about infidelity and a cheating partner, which, obviously, people assume comes from personal experiences with her husband, Jay Z.
A new study published in The Oxford Handbook of Women and Competition says that women whose partners leave them for another woman end up benefiting from the infidelity in the long run. Jay can go call Becky with the good hair all he wants, Bey will come out on top. Like she always does.
According to the study, women who lose partners due to infidelity benefit from the experience after a period of “post-relationship grief and betrayal.” One of the researchers, Craig Morris of Binghamton University, reported in a press release that a scorned woman “come[s] out of the experience with higher mating intelligence,” which ultimately helps her find a more suitable mate in the long run. Or at least one that won’t make her regret the night she put her ring on.
From an evolutionary perspective, women who suffer through a relationship with a cheating partner have an advantage. The negative emotions associated with being cheated on attune physiological processes, thoughts and behavior to motivate actions that help them avoid being in the same situation in the future.
This is beneficial not only on a reproductive level, according to the study, but also for personal development. Being able to kick his sorry ass to the curb, it turns out, is evolutionarily beneficial. There hasn’t been a study of the same magnitude on partners doing the cheating, so only time will tell how this bodes for Jay … allegedly.
“If we have evolved to seek out and maintain relationships, then it seems logical that there would be evolved mechanisms and responses to relationship termination, as over 85 percent of individuals will experience at least one in their lifetime,” Morris said.
The study is the largest-ever study on relationship dissolution, conducted via anonymous online survey of 5,705 participants in 96 countries.
And as for Becky? The woman who enters into the relationship with the dishonest partner largely loses, since she’ll be stuck with the cheater (or tons of Instagram haters, as Rachel Roy found out after the Beyhive assumed SHE was Becky). The Jay in this scenario, meanwhile, has to live with the fact that he screwed over, and I quote, “the baddest woman in the game.”
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