Five university professors conducted a study into infidelity by asking students whether they felt more forgiving of retired Gen. David Petraeus conducting an affair after seeing photos of his wife Holly and his “more attractive” and much younger mistress Paula Broadwell.
Three psychologists and two criminologists from the Midwest are to publish their conclusions in a paper entitled, “Sex differences in cognitive and moral appraisals of infidelity: Evidence from an experimental survey of reactions to the Petraeus affair.” Guilherme Lopes, Andrew Holub, and Todd Shackleford of Oakland University, Michigan, Jukka Savolainen of the University of Michigan, and Joseph Schwartz of the University of Nebraska found that men were more likely to show “understanding” of the infidelity by Petraeus when they saw photos of his wife and his mistress.
They concluded, “These results suggest sex differences in appraisals of infidelity, which are particularly salient when participants are presented with visual stimuli contrasting the wife and the more attractive mistress of the unfaithful man.” Elaborating on the gender differences, they explained, “As predicted, men more than women reported lower scores of moral appraisal (‘condemnation’) and higher scores of cognitive appraisal (‘understanding’) across both conditions.”
Petraeus, 67, resigned as CIA director in 2012 over the affair with Broadwell, 47, who was married and the mother of two young children. Holly Petraeus, also 67, met her husband while he was a cadet at West Point and her father was the superintendent. They married in 1974.
It was later found that Petraeus shared classified information with Broadwell. He pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of mishandling classified materials in 2015. He was fined $100,000 and put on probation for two years.
Bioethics experts told the Washington Examiner that the methods used by the professors were flawed, morally suspect, and could be deeply painful to Holly Petraeus, whose personal humiliation had already been acute when the affair became public in 2012. “This study violates subject dignity,” said Arthur Caplan, professor of bioethics at New York University. He added that there was “no reason to use known individuals as the objects of opinion,” and stock photos or artificial composites could have been presented instead.
He took issue with the academics’ bald statement that Broadwell is “more attractive” than Holly Petraeus. “The claim is insulting. It is also not explicitly verified,” he said. “And why deprecate or potentially humiliate real, identifiable people. Plus, the sample is so tiny, it fails to capture age, cultural values, and cosmetic use. I think the ‘study’ is ethically dubious.”
Daniel Sulmasy, a bioethicist at Georgetown University, said, “The fact that they chose a high-profile individual like that may not be the most morally upright choice, and it might not even be the most scientifically valid choice, because you’re using somebody that has that kind of notoriety that might affect the ways in which people form their judgments.”
Marina Adshade, an economist and writer, commented via Twitter: “Surely the scientific value here is not worth the harm done by this research to Holly Petraeus.” Vicki Larson, a journalist and author who writes about relationships, responded: “Exactly. Although, do you remember how she was vilified at the time?”
Lopes, Holub, and Shackleford were among the authors of a 2018 study entitled: “Do Men Produce Higher Quality Ejaculates When Primed With Thoughts of Partner Infidelity?” That study concluded that men’s sperm was not of a higher quality when they were imagining their partner having sex with another man.
The Petraeus study participants were divided into two groups. One was shown a picture of Petraeus alone. The other was shown a picture of Petraeus, another with him and his wife, Holly, and a third with him and Broadwell. Both groups were given an identical brief description detailing the circumstances of the affair. The participants in the study were students from “two different campuses of a Midwestern university system.”
The authors noted: “Various media outlets described the physical appearance of Paula Broadwell as ‘toned’ and ‘very attractive’ in contrast to Holly Petraeus as ‘ordinary’ and ‘frumpy.'”
They acknowledged, “Participants were approximately 22 years old, but note that this statistic is affected by the inclusion of one graduate-level class in the experiment. Close to 95% percent of the respondents were undergraduate students, and about 1-in-10 participants had served in the military.”
Despite other potential problems with the study, including that Broadwell was “posed directly facing the camera, but Holly Petraeus is slightly turned such that part of her face is obscured,” the authors concluded, “These results indicate that viewing a contrast between a physically attractive mistress and a less physically attractive wife may influence the degree to which men understand the actions of an unfaithful man.
“Men’s judgment of infidelity may not be changed by comparing the mistress and wife, but their understanding of another man’s unfaithfulness may increase if the mistress is more attractive than the wife.”
Petraeus and Broadwell met in 2006, when Broadwell was a graduate student at Harvard and a reserve Army officer. The two West Point graduates became close in 2010, when Broadwell researched the biography, All In: The Education of General David Petraeus. While visiting Petraeus during six trips to Afghanistan, where Petraeus commanded U.S. forces, Broadwell had significant access to the general. She often joined him on runs and spent extensive time alone with him in his office, military officers said.
In 2012, while Petraeus was head of the CIA, his friend Jill Kelley told the FBI she was being harassed by a cyberstalker. The stalker turned out to be Broadwell. While investigating the complaint, the FBI discovered that Petraeus and Broadwell were having an affair and had communicated with each other by saving draft messages in a Gmail account.
Broadwell remains married to Scott Broadwell, a radiologist, and they have two sons, ages 11 and 13. David and Holly Petraeus, who have two adult children, are also still married.
Savolainen responded to the Washington Examiner by email, writing: “I’m in Finland, traveling. What’s your angle or interest in this study?” He did not reply when asked why the researchers chose Petraeus and Broadwell for the study and why photos of real people were used.
Neither Petraeus nor Broadwell responded to requests for comment.
