Children of Extramarital Affairs Were and Are Rare: Study

Using DNA data, researchers track family dynamics in Europe over the last 500 years and find socioeconomic status is related to married women having a child with a man other than their husband.

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ABOVE: A reproduction of the painting “Celebrating the Birth,” by artist Jan Steen. WIKIMEDIA, WEB GALLERY OF ART

That old joke about the milkman fathering many of a town’s children—it’s far from true, a new study reaffirms.

Researchers analyzed the Y chromosome and genealogy data of 513 pairs of men living in Belgium and the Netherlands. Based on the genealogy data, each pair shared a common paternal ancestor and therefore should have had identical Y chromosomes, unless there was a case of adultery, or what scientists call extra-pair paternity. The study confirmed that the vast majority—99 percent—were indeed genetically related through their paternal lineage, which the authors say buck some common assumptions.

Study coauthor Maarten Larmuseau of KU Leuven was inspired to run the study after looking at a 17th-century painting (pictured above) called “Celebrating the Birth.” In the work, artist Jan Steen shows a celebration centered on the birth ...

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Meet the Author

  • Ashley Yeager

    Ashley started at The Scientist in 2018. Before joining the staff, she worked as a freelance editor and writer, a writer at the Simons Foundation, and a web producer at Science News, among other positions. She holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and a master’s degree in science writing from MIT. Ashley edits the Scientist to Watch and Profile sections of the magazine and writes news, features, and other stories for both online and print.

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