A New Study Uncovers 2 Surprising Reasons Why People Cheat
Affairs aren't always a sign of a troubled relationship. New research tells us why.
By Mark Travers, Ph.D. | June 22, 2023
A new study published in the journal Archives of Sexual Behavior studied the experiences of users of the online dating service Ashley Madison and found there are two main drivers that motivate people to seek out affairs:
- A dead bedroom (or unsatisfactory sex)
- A desire for personal autonomy and novelty
"I've been working on studying romantic infidelity for a while now, over 10 years," explained Dylan Selterman of the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, and the lead author of the study. "Most of my prior work focused on young adults in dating relationships, and those samples skew slightly towards women. So, I was excited to study a different demographic of Ashley Madison users who are mostly middle-aged, married men."
Another factor that distinguished the current study from prior research was its focus on participants who were actively engaged in their affairs at the time of being assessed.
"We surveyed Ashley Madison users at two points in time, about three months apart, and some of our participants (over 250 of them) completed both survey measures which meant that we could test how their relationships may have changed over time as a result of their affairs," Selterman added.
Contrary to prior findings, Selterman found that low relationship quality (in terms of satisfaction, love, and commitment) had little to do with why people decided to cheat. Rather, it was a lack of satisfactory sex and a desire for novelty that stood out as motivations for engaging in extramarital affairs. Interestingly, many participants reported feeling "highly satisfied" with their affairs and expressed little moral regret when it came to their primary relationship.
These results are, of course, limited by the time span of the study and the perspective of the participants, who proactively sought out affairs.
"We found little evidence for changes in relationship quality or well-being, although it's definitely possible that we would have gotten different results if we had covered a longer time span (years instead of months), or if we surveyed the spouses/partners who mostly were unaware that their partners were cheating on them," Selterman explained.
The study also delved into the dynamics of consensually open relationships, where people's partners are aware and accepting of their extramarital affairs.
"Those relationships typically have better relationship outcomes compared to those where cheating happens," said Selterman. "However, there are similar underlying motivations across these two types of relationship experiences. In the case of those who cheat and those who have open relationships, these folks are often driven by wanting more sexual partners and more excitement, and are not necessarily satisfied with just one partner."
The takeaways from Selterman's study are valuable to anyone who wants to understand why some people cheat in seemingly perfect relationships. The study emphasizes how important it is for a monogamous couple to work through their sexual problems and normalize open, honest conversations about sex.
Selterman had this to say when asked why the participants in the study reported mostly positive experiences with cheating:
"We don't know exactly why people had positive experiences with their affairs and why they felt little regret. We were hoping to answer those questions (at least somewhat) by examining other variables in people's lives, such as their moral concerns, but those results didn't pan out because they were statistically unreliable. I hope to see more research examining moral variables."
A full interview with researcher Dylan Selterman discussing his new, counterintuitive findings on infidelity can be found here: Is being faithful overrated?