It seems to me that Morris has it backwards. He starts by claiming that brilliant men cheat because they are risk-takers and then falls back to the more conventional — and plausible — case that dominant men cheat. I don’t believe for a second that creative genius makes men more likely to cheat on their wives. Many a brilliant monk went without entirely. And, I somehow doubt that Astrophysics conferences turn into a sexual Bacchanalia second only to a pool party at Jimmy Caan’s house once the final paper is read. But fame, riches, glory: these things will seduce the ladies and cause men to think they are above the bourgeois constraints of marriage. That doesn’t mean successful men always give in to temptations, but one can imagine all sorts on instinctual, genetic, psychological and other reasons for why the temptation is there.

But brains alone? Naw. If that were the case, the Bill Gates-type computer nerds would get all the chicks when they’re still nerds in high school rather than when they’re billionaires ten years later. And, let us not forget, that many successful actors and athletes are too stupid to breathe without instruction, but that doesn’t mean they don’t do better than your average rocket scientist with the ladies.