Why Do People Cheat? Ashley Madison Has an Answer
Trending News: This Is Why People Have Affairs (It’s Not Just About Sex)
Finding someone to be with for the rest of your life and then having that person feel the same about you is no easy feat. So why do so many people cheat when they have found that special someone? It’s not always about sex or because they don’t love their partner, according to a new survey from Ashley Madison.
The popular site for cheaters asked 2,000 of its users why they choose to break the bonds of marriage, and for women, sex is only 65 percent of the reason why they cheat, while it’s 87 percent for guys. But there are also a plethora of other reasons.
Many want the feeling of butterflies again (43 percent for women and 23 percent for men), to explore new desires (41 percent for women and 39 percent for men) or affection (41 percent for women and 33 percent for men). Both men and women ranked “friendship” as the main motivator for infidelity 39 percent of the time.
Related: Can Relationships Survive Affairs? Here's Everything You Need to Know
Divorce? Maybe Later
Men and women aren’t always cheating because they want to break up or because they don’t love their partner anymore. More than half (56 percent) said they still love their partner, but they’re just looking for more sexual fulfillment. Meanwhile, 24 percent say they want to keep their family together. In fact, some people cheat to save their marriage, according to Tammy Nelson, a sex and relationship therapist and author of “The New Monogamy: Redefining Your Relationship After Infidelity.”
“Many people cheat to stay in their marriage, in fact some say they do it because they want to keep their family together. They may find an outside partner rather than break up their marriage by getting divorced,” Nelson told Ashley Madison. “As paradoxical as this sounds, for some it’s better to cheat than to leave.”
Isabella Mise, director of communications for Ashley Madison, added that people may cheat to save their marriage, rather than destroy it.
“It’s not always about finding someone new and running off, potentially destroying the family dynamic,” she said. “We speak to many of our members and they tell us that infidelity has helped save their marriage by satisfying their natural desires allowing them to return back to the marriage a more complete person.”
Your Actions Speak Loudly
The thing with cheating is, it might feel great, but your partner might not always feel the same way. According to a 2015 Gallup poll, Americans are more accepting of cloning humans, polygamy, and suicide than they are of married people cheating.
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