Mar 2, 2026 10:16 PM
https://www.psypost.org/the-psychology-o...nfidelity/
EXCERPT: “There are many factors that contribute to people’s decisions to cheat, sometimes not having anything to do with their primary or spousal relationships,” Selterman noted. The results challenged some common assumptions about infidelity. The researchers found that a low quality of relationship with a primary partner was not always the main driver for cheating.
“The fact that we did not observe significant correlations between relationship quality and whether or not participants had an affair was very surprising,” Selterman explained. Many users reported experiencing high levels of love for their spouses. They generally indicated that their marriages suffered from very low levels of sexual satisfaction rather than a lack of emotional attachment.
About half of the participants reported that they were not sexually active with their primary partners. “In our sample of Ashley Madison users, we found that overall, sexual dissatisfaction was high and a large number of participants reported not having sex at all with their partners or spouses,” Selterman stated. “So they looked for affairs, and some of them had affairs, and among those folks who did have an affair, they experienced high satisfaction with their affairs and low levels of regret.”
“They seemed to still maintain love and intimacy with their spouses,” Selterman continued. “It seems like they genuinely feel like they didn’t do anything wrong, which is remarkable given how highly stigmatized infidelity is.” Having an affair did not reliably predict that the user would eventually divorce their primary spouse... (MORE - details)
EXCERPT: “There are many factors that contribute to people’s decisions to cheat, sometimes not having anything to do with their primary or spousal relationships,” Selterman noted. The results challenged some common assumptions about infidelity. The researchers found that a low quality of relationship with a primary partner was not always the main driver for cheating.
“The fact that we did not observe significant correlations between relationship quality and whether or not participants had an affair was very surprising,” Selterman explained. Many users reported experiencing high levels of love for their spouses. They generally indicated that their marriages suffered from very low levels of sexual satisfaction rather than a lack of emotional attachment.
About half of the participants reported that they were not sexually active with their primary partners. “In our sample of Ashley Madison users, we found that overall, sexual dissatisfaction was high and a large number of participants reported not having sex at all with their partners or spouses,” Selterman stated. “So they looked for affairs, and some of them had affairs, and among those folks who did have an affair, they experienced high satisfaction with their affairs and low levels of regret.”
“They seemed to still maintain love and intimacy with their spouses,” Selterman continued. “It seems like they genuinely feel like they didn’t do anything wrong, which is remarkable given how highly stigmatized infidelity is.” Having an affair did not reliably predict that the user would eventually divorce their primary spouse... (MORE - details)