Who Will Be Filling Your Partner's Stockings This Christmas?

As the work Christmas party looms should you worry about your partner's fidelity

A series of studies carried out by the free dating website Smooch.com and free gay cruising website Mancentral.com highlights that when it comes to trusting cheats, some gender divisions will never change.

With the festive season rapidly approaching, our minds are flooded with endless questions and dilemmas, “What shall I buy Mum this year?”, “Will I get socks again?”, “Ball-balls or Tinsel” and so on. But whilst you browse the department stores in search of the perfect gift, humming along to the Mariah Carey classic All I Want For Christmas Is You, consider whether your partner is singing from the same hymn sheet.

Members of the free dating website Smooch.com were asked: Once a cheat, always a cheat? A staggering 64% of women surveyed 'definitely' agreed with the statement compared with only 45% of men.

Interestingly, the results showed that men were more likely to forgive and forget with 36% of men believing that people make mistakes, whilst less than a quarter of women were inclined to accept the notion of human error.

However ladies, before you return your partner to the manufacturer for repair, it appears that this attitude is fitted as standard on the male species regardless of age or sexuality. Results from Man Central paralleled that of Smooch as 40% of gay men 'definitely' believed once a cheat, always a cheat.

But what can you really take away from this research? Well, for the ladies, if you do fall foul of the Babycham this Christmas over a third of men will forgive you. As for the men...nearly two thirds of women won't just be roasting chestnuts by an open fire this holiday season.

Additional breakdowns revealed:

• People with a PhD (67%) are almost twice as likely to respond 'Definitely' than those with a Masters Degree (34%).

• Unsurprisingly, divorcees (59%) are less forgiving than those who are married (29%).

• People in a relationship (19%) are nearly 4 times as likely to choose 'It's only cheating if you get caught' than Single respondents (5%).

• The starsign Cancer is least forgiving with 64% choosing 'Definitely' whilst the most forgiving starsign is Gemini with 34% choosing 'People make mistakes'.