Romantic Infidelity Research Articles

The current state of affairs in infidelity research: A systematic review and meta‐analysis of romantic infidelity prevalence and its moderators

AbstractIn this systematic review and meta‐analysis, researchers' operationalizations of romantic infidelity and the techniques that they employed to measure it were surveyed along with the demographic characteristics of their respondent samples. A meta‐analytic synthesis of infidelity prevalence estimates and their moderators is provided. The APA PsycINFO, PubMed, ISI Web of Science, and ERIC databases were searched for peer‐reviewed, English‐language studies reporting infidelity prevalence rates that were published as of September 2022. Weighted aggregate estimates of different forms of infidelity were calculated and the moderating effects of certain methodological variables on these estimates were examined. Study‐level risk of bias was assessed using the Appraisal tool for Cross‐Sectional Studies (AXIS). A total of 305 studies met the inclusion criteria, with an aggregate sample size of 508,241 respondents across 47 countries. Multiple forms of infidelity were identified, with sexual infidelity receiving the most research attention and many studies lacking clear infidelity operationalization. Anonymous data collection and convenience sampling were found to result in greater report of sexual, but not emotional, infidelity. The findings indicate that nonsexual forms of infidelity remain underexplored. Additionally, operational ambiguity and sample demographic homogeneity are widespread in the existing infidelity research literature. Research practices in this field raise concern regarding the effects of impression management, self‐selection, and response biases.

Fragile Egos and Broken Hearts: Narcissistic and Borderline Personality Traits Predict Reactions to Potential Infidelity

We examined the connections that narcissistic and borderline personality traits had with hypothetical responses to romantic infidelity in a sample of Israeli community members (N = 997). We distinguished between four forms of narcissism: extraverted narcissism (characterized by assertive self-enhancement), antagonistic narcissism (characterized by defensiveness and hostility), neurotic narcissism (characterized by emotional distress), and communal narcissism (characterized by attempts to emphasize superiority over others by exaggerating communal characteristics such as being extraordinarily helpful). We also measured levels of borderline personality traits. Results showed that neurotic narcissism was strongly associated with heightened negative emotional responses, particularly in high-threat infidelity scenarios, aligning with predictions regarding emotional volatility. Antagonistic and communal narcissism showed detrimental effects on relationship evaluations primarily under low-threat conditions, indicating distinct patterns of defensiveness and vulnerability. Extraverted narcissism showed no significant association with emotional responses. Borderline traits were linked to intense emotional reactions across conditions, emphasizing their broad impact on perceived relational threats. These findings suggest that while some personality traits exacerbate reactions in less severe conditions, infidelity trauma can overwhelm these differences, underscoring the potential need for personalized therapeutic approaches. Discussion is focused on the implications for understanding personality traits in relational contexts and future research directions exploring varied threat manipulations.

Personal relevance affects the perceived immorality of politically-charged threats.

Personal similarities to a transgressor makes one view the transgression as less immoral. We investigated whether personal relevance might also affect the perceived immorality of politically-charged threats. We hypothesized that increasing the personal relevance of a threat would lead participants to report the threat as more immoral, even for threats the participant might otherwise view indifferently. U.S. participants recruited online (N = 488) were randomly assigned to write about the personal relevance of either a liberal threat (pollution), conservative threat (disrespecting an elder), neutral threat (romantic infidelity), or given a control filler task. Participants then rated how immoral and personally relevant each political threat was, as well as reported their political ideology. Partial support for our hypothesis emerged: when primed with conservative writing prompts, liberal-leaning participants rated the conservative threat as more immoral, compared with the same threat after a liberal writing prompt. We did not find these results for conservative-leaning participants, perhaps because all participants cared relatively equally about the liberal threat.

Emotional Dimensions of Infidelity: An Analysis of Psychological and Emotional Factors Affecting Relationship Infidelity

This study examines the psychological and emotional aspects that influence romantic infidelity. The study uses quantitative surveys and qualitative interviews to understand emotional infidelity and its effects on relationships. Emotional intimacy shapes people's reactions to emotional infidelity, according to study. Attachment theory shows how attachment styles affect people's willingness to form emotional bonds outside of committed relationships. Unmet emotional wants and fears prompt anxious attachment styles to seek emotional connections outside their partnerships. The study emphasizes relationship communication patterns. Open discourse, emotional sharing, and mutual understanding can avoid emotional infidelity, which is linked to poor communication. The study examines how internet interactions affect emotional infidelity. The findings highlight how easily emotional ties may grow on digital platforms, raising questions about the limits between online interactions and emotional closeness in committed relationships. This research affects relationship treatment and education. Communication skills, attachment insecurities, and emotional intimacy interventions can avoid emotional infidelity. Couples can create trust and contentment through nurturing emotional connections in the primary relationship. This study illuminates emotional infidelity's psychological and emotional aspects. This study examines attachment styles, communication patterns, and the digital age to inform future research, interventions, and methods for better relationships. In a changing world, emotional infidelity must be addressed to build lasting partnerships.

Love and Infidelity: Causes and Consequences

This is a narrative review addressing the topic of romantic infidelity, its causes and its consequences. Love is commonly a source of much pleasure and fulfillment. However, as this review points out, it can also cause stress, heartache and may even be traumatic in some circumstances. Infidelity, which is relatively common in Western culture, can damage a loving, romantic relationship to the point of its demise. However, by highlighting this phenomenon, its causes and its consequences, we hope to provide useful insight for both researchers and clinicians who may be assisting couples facing these issues. We begin by defining infidelity and illustrating the various ways in which one may become unfaithful to their partner. We explore the personal and relational factors that enhance an individual's tendency to betray their partner, the various reactions related to a discovered affair and the challenges related to the nosological categorization of infidelity-based trauma, and conclude by reviewing the effects of COVID-19 on unfaithful behavior, as well as clinical implications related to infidelity-based treatment. Ultimately, we hope to provide a road map, for academicians and clinicians alike, of what some couples may experience in their relationships and how can they be helped.

What Do People Do, Say, and Feel When They Have Affairs? Associations between Extradyadic Infidelity Motives with Behavioral, Emotional, and Sexual Outcomes

In this study, we surveyed a sample of U.S. undergraduates and internet-based participants (N = 495) about their experiences during/after romantic infidelity (affairs), and their initial motivations to engage in infidelity. Meaningful associations emerged between motivation and experience variables. Dyadic motivations (e.g., anger at one’s partner, lack of love) were linked with longer affairs, more public dates with affair partners, and primary relationship dissolution. Conversely, non-dyadic situational motivations (e.g., feeling stressed or intoxicated) were linked with shorter affairs, less satisfying sex during affairs, and lower rates of disclosure and dissolution. These findings suggest meaningful infidelity typologies and may aid researchers and practitioners in helping others resolve relational conflicts.

Both sides of the story: Narratives of romantic infidelity

AbstractWe applied a narrative identity approach to the study of romantic infidelity. In Study 1, participants provided narratives of the moment they discovered their partners' infidelity. In Study 2, participants were prompted for narratives of their unfaithful actions. In both studies, measures of personality traits, forgiveness, empathy, and self‐esteem were administered. Narratives were coded for themes of redemption (bad beginnings, positive endings) and exploration (engaging with the experience's emotional implications). After controlling for relevant covariates (e.g., story length), participants who formed redemptive stories of their partner's infidelity evinced higher levels of forgiveness and lower levels of empathy (Study 1), whereas participants who disclosed redemptive stories about their own infidelity demonstrated decreased forgiveness (Study 2). Across studies, exploratory narratives corresponded positively with conscientiousness.

It did not mean anything (about me)

Perpetrating romantic infidelity is discrepant with how most individuals see themselves and theoretically should produce cognitive dissonance. Accordingly, perpetrators of infidelity should experience symptoms of dissonance (e.g. self-concept discrepancy, psychological discomfort, poor affect) and employ tactics that reduce these symptoms (e.g. trivialization). These hypotheses were tested in four experiments. In each experiment, participants were given bogus feedback indicating that they had acted either faithfully or unfaithfully during a prior romantic relationship (this manipulation was evaluated in experiment 1). Participants who received unfaithful feedback reported higher levels of self-concept discrepancy, psychological discomfort, and poor affect (experiments 2 and 4) and trivialized to a greater extent the importance of their ostensive infidelities (experiments 3 and 4). Experiment 4 further showed that trivialization significantly reduced self-concept discrepancy and psychological discomfort but not poor affect. These results are generally consistent with the view that infidelity is a dissonance arousing behavior and that perpetrators of infidelity respond in ways that reduce cognitive dissonance.

Adult Attachment, Cognitive Appraisal, and University Students' Reactions to Romantic Infidelity

This study examined the relationships between adult attachment, cognitive appraisal, and university students' behavioral and emotional reactions to infidelity situations in romantic relationships. Results based on 173 university students suggested that both attachment and cognitive appraisals significantly predicted distinct types of infidelity reactions and that participants' cognitive appraisal mediated the effects of attachment on behavioral and emotional reactions. Counseling applications for university counselors are discussed on the basis of attachment perspectives and cognitive appraisal models.

Examining the Relationship Between Attachment Behaviors and College Student Health and Wellness

In a recent study presented at the annual conference of the American Psychological Association, Dr. John Guthman noted that there has been a steady growth in the number of students seeking counseling services for more severe psychological problems on college and university campuses in the United States (Nauert, 2010). He postulated that one possible reason for this trend may be that an increasing number of students are coming to campus socially isolated and not connected to any individual or group. Indeed, previous researchers have suggested that two constructs integral to successful college adjustment are continuing parental attachment and social support (Moller, Fouladi, McCarthy, & Hatch, 2003). Although the existing literature has shown a strong link between adult attachment and mental and physical health, Raque-Bogdan, Ericson, Jackson, Martin, and Bryan (2011) stated that little is known about the factors and mechanisms underlying these relationships. In this issue of the Journal of College Counseling, several researchers attempt to fill this gap by exploring possible constructs related to college student attachment. In the opening article, Chia-Chih DC Wang and colleagues used adult attachment theory and cognitive appraisal theory to examine how college students react to romantic infidelity scenarios. In their study, both attachment and cognitive appraisal mediated the effects of attachment on behavioral and emotional reactions. Their work provides college counselors with a better understanding of how clients' attachment styles and cognitive processes may affect their experiences and reactions when faced with a romantic partner's act of infidelity. Keisha Love and Tamera Murdock examined a mediational path model containing parental attachment, cognitive working models, and depression. They hypothesized that cognitive working models of the self and others would mediate the relationship between parental attachment and depression among African American college students. Their results lend support for the use of parental attachment relationships as a predictor of depression and provide direction for counselors working with these clients in their daily practice. Jeffrey Ashby and colleagues examined the relationship between adaptive and maladaptive perfectionism, stress, depression, and satisfaction with life in a sample of undergraduate women. The increasing number of college students who report seeking counseling services for the distress caused by perfectionism make this a timely contribution to the college counseling literature. In addition to providing evidence for a reexamination of the association between adaptive perfectionism, stress, and possible related outcomes, Ashby and colleagues also provide additional support for the mediating role stress plays in the association of maladaptive perfectionism with decreased positive and increased negative outcomes. …

Are Sexual and Emotional Infidelity Equally Upsetting to Men and Women? Making Sense of Forced-Choice Responses

Forced-choice measures that assess reactions to imagined sexual and emotional infidelity are ubiquitous in studies testing the Jealousy as a Specific Innate Module (JSIM) model. One potential problem with such measures is that they fail to identify respondents who find both forms of infidelity equally upsetting. To examine this issue, an experiment was conducted in which two groups of participants imagined a romantic infidelity after which participants in the first group used a traditional forced-choice measure to indicate whether they found sexual or emotional infidelity more upsetting. Participants in the second group instead used a modified forced-choice measure that allowed them also to indicate whether they found both forms of infidelity equally upsetting. Consistent with previous research, those given the traditional forced-choice measure tended to respond in a manner that supported the JSIM model. However, the majority of participants given the modified measure indicated that both forms of infidelity were equally upsetting.