By host Tom Ashbrook:

Birds do it. Bees do it. Humans do it, and when it’s “on the side” they call it infidelity. But infidelity is understood, practiced and paid for in many different ways around the world. In some countries it’s astonishingly common. In many others it’s not.

In the United States it is, perhaps, to most taboo. Former Wall Street Journal reporter Pamela Druckerman has found the statistics and followed the trail of infidelity around the world, from the USA to Paris and Moscow, Tokyo and Togo.

This hour On Point: Pamela Druckerman talks about her new book “Lust in Translation: The Rules of Infidelity from Tokyo to Tennessee.”

“I got the idea because I was a foreign correspondent and realized that you can learn a lot about foreign cultures by looking at people’s private lives.” Pamela Druckerman

“Men in poor countries cheat a lot and men in wealthier countries cheat a lot less.” Pamela Druckerman

“Women in wealthier countries cheat more than women in poor countries.” Pamela Druckerman

“America, the Philippines and Ireland are the most disapproving of infidelity.” Pamela Druckerman

“In America, the contemporary wisdom on infidelity is that it’s not the cheating, it’s the lying.” Pamela Druckerman

“When affairs happen, Americans are profoundly shocked.” Pamela Druckerman

Guests:

Pamela Druckerman, author of “Lust in Translation: The Rules of Infidelity from Tokyo to Tennessee”