Why women who have been cheated on ‘win’ in the end

Here's proof that being with a loser can help you in the long run

While all breakups and painful, discovering that your partner has cheated on you, or left you for someone else certainly adds an extra dimension of heartbreak to the situation.

However, although the short-term pain can be crippling, in the long-term women whose partners have left them for someone else, can actually benefit from the pain.

Psychologists at Binghamptom University, New York questioned 5,000 people about their breakups and concluded that women who had been cheated on tended to make better choices in their future relationships, because of their ‘higher mating intelligence.’

Dr Craig Morris, who led the study, said: '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.

‘Over 85% of individuals will experience at least one (breakup) in their lifetime.

'Our thesis is that the woman who "loses" her mate to another woman will go through a period of post-relationship grief and betrayal, but come out of the experience with higher mating intelligence that allows her to better detect cues in future mates that may indicate low mate value.’

In fact, the study found that the ‘other woman’ will be the person who benefits least from the situation.

'Hence, in the long-term, she "wins". The "other woman", conversely, is now in a relationship with a partner who has a demonstrated history of deception and, likely, infidelity. Thus, in the long-term, she "loses".'

The study also found that because of infidelity women have evolved to cope to better with competition.

'If negative emotions exist because they provide an evolutionary advantage then emotions arising from the loss of a mate to a sexual rival may potentially motivate actions that could make one avoid this scenario in the future.'

Well that's made us feel better than just listening to Lemonade on loop.