The Challenges of Infidelity

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As long as humans have formed intimate relationships, they have grappled with infidelity.

New technologies are forcing couples to renegotiate the rules of intimacy and commitment.

Digital infidelity refers to online behaviors that could be perceived as betrayals.

Infidelity is as old as relationships itself. Early definitions of infidelity centered around sexual infidelity, a physical transgression outside of the primary relationship. Over time, experts started to expand its definition to include emotional infidelity, which occurs when someone forms a deep emotional bond and possibly falls in love with someone outside of that primary relationship.

Studies show some gender differences in how people react to cheating: Men appear to be more hurt by physical transgressions, while women feel more betrayed when they believe that that their male partners have cheated emotionally. Interestingly, this gender difference was only seen in heterosexual couples; in one study, gay men, bisexual men and women, and lesbian women did not differ significantly when it came to which type of betrayal impacted them more.

People cheat for a variety of reasons. Sometimes an indiscretion happens for pure physical fulfillment, but more often than not, people cheat because they need to be seen, desired, and validated. Esther Perel once said, "The victim of an affair is not always the victim of the marriage." Infidelity can be the cause or a symptom of a failing........

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