Factors Found to Facilitate Infidelity
Most instances of reported infidelity in relationships are associated with problems or concerns within the primary relationship including: dissatisfaction or boredom, poor communication, insecurity, immaturity, jealous or anger towards a partner, or revenge. (McAnulty & Brineman, 2012).
Frank Fincham and Ross Way (2016) summarize the current state of research on the prediction of infidelity, which includes the following factors:
Table 1. Factors found to facilitate infidelity. Adapted from “Infidelity in Romantic Relationships,” by Frank D. Fincham and Ross W. May, 2016, February 29, Current Opinion in Psychology, 13, p. 71. Copyright 2016 by Elsevier Ltd.
Cheating in the U.S.:
- Although the majority of Americans disapprove of infidelity (in a Gallop Poll 90% of Americans view cheating as immoral, 65% say it unforgivable), it is estimated that 2-4% of spouses engage sexual infidelity in any given year
- Men are more likely to engage in physical affairs or have more extramarital partners than women
- Men express more desire to have physical affairs
- Men express more willingness to engage in physical affairs
- Men more actively seek an extramarital partner
- Men have less disapproval of physical affairs relative to women
- Women are socialized to be more focused on the romantic and emotional aspect of relationships, whereas men are socialized to be more focused on the physical and sexual aspects of relationships
- Males are more threatened by sexual acts of infidelity because of the inability to determine fatherhood of their offspring; on the other hand, females are theoretically more concerned with other factors that determine whether fathers of their children will remain committed to the family and will provide emotional and financial support