As you settle down to watch Love Actually with your family this Christmas - and laugh at the seemingly ridiculous plot devices - one scene will ring especially true to a lot of philandering men.
Emma Thompson's character discovers that the expensive-looking necklace she spied her husband, Alan Rickman, buying was not actually for her, she's been given a CD.
A new survey has revealed that that is far from unusual. Men who have affairs spend an average of 12 percent more on Christmas presents for their mistresses than their wives.
The statistics, taken from a survey of 2,000 men who use the Illicit Encounters website, discovered that an average of £124 is splurged on mistress』 presents, while £109 is put aside for their spouse’s gifts.
The infidelity prone men were asked to describe the main Christmas gift being purchased for their mistress and their Mrs.
Eighty-nine percent of these men admitted to choosing something 『ultimately decorative with that being it’s sole purpose』 for their mistress in comparison to 42 percent of these men choosing an item like this for their wife.
Half of men have chosen something 『practical and useful for around the home』 for their other halves in comparison to only three percent of men that chosen that kind of present for their lover.
Cheating expert and spokesperson for Illicit Encounters, Rosie Freeman-Jones says: 'The difference in the sort of gifts men choose to buy for their mistress and wives mirror the different ways married men often view these two relationships.
'Men often see their mistresses as playing more "surface", decorative roles in their lives, providing sex and affection without much emotional attachment.
'This explains why mistresses receive less practical and more "pretty" gifts.
'On the other side of the coin, a man's relationship with his wife, after time, becomes less about being pretty and more about being practical - the bigger issues of mortgages and maintenance overtake the seemingly less important things like romance.
'The less a husband thinks of his wife as a sexual being, the more functional and "unsexy" his gifts will become.'
(Read by Nelly Min. Nelly Min is a journalist at the China Daily Website.)
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(Agencies)
這個聖誕節，當你和家人一起觀看電影《真愛至上》，對看似荒唐的劇情設置大笑的時候，有一個場景對花心男來說卻特別真實。
艾瑪•湯普森所扮演的劇中角色發現，她私下發現的丈夫艾倫•瑞克曼購買的看起來很昂貴的項鍊其實不是送她的，她已經得到了CD作為禮物。
最新調查表明，這種情況很常見。有婚外情的男性給情人購買聖誕禮物的花費比給妻子的花費平均高出12%。
共有兩千名男性通過Illicit Encounters網站參與了該調查，結果發現，男性為情人的禮物平均花費124英鎊，而給妻子的禮物平均只花費109英鎊。
有出軌傾向的男性被要求描述一下給情人和夫人買的聖誕禮物都是哪些。
89%的受訪男性承認會選擇「完全用來裝飾，且裝飾是唯一目的」的禮物來送給情人，而只有42%的男性會送給妻子這樣的禮物。
半數男性會選擇「在家裡很實用，很有用」的禮物送給妻子，相比之下，僅有3%的男性會送給情人這樣的禮物。
外遇專家兼Illicit Encounters網站發言人羅西•弗裡曼-瓊斯說：「男性給情人和妻子送不同種類的禮物反映出已婚男性對這兩種關係的不同態度。」
「男性通常認為情人在自己的生活中扮演更加『表面』、裝飾性的角色，給他們帶來性和愉悅，卻沒有太多情感依附。」
這解釋了為什麼情人收到的禮物更不實用，但更「漂亮」。
「但在另一面，男性與妻子的關係，久而久之，變得與美麗無關，更傾向於實用，房貸和生活費等更大的問題取代了看似沒那麼重要的事情，比如浪漫。
「丈夫看待妻子時，『性伴侶』的成分越少，他送給妻子的禮物就更實用，更『不性感』。」
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（中國日報網英語點津 Julie 編輯：陳丹妮）