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4 Magazines Delivered to Your Door

If You Do These Things, You Might Be Accidentally Cheating on Your Partner

Secret texts, hidden friendships and dating apps all made the list as Americans drew a much stricter line around modern infidelity.

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Most people think they have a pretty clear read on what cheating is. Physical contact with someone outside the relationship, obviously. An emotional affair, sure. The average American’s definition, though, has gotten way more specific—and people are already doing things all the time that fall inside it.

Talker Research surveyed 2,000 Americans in 2026 and found 15% of people in relationships admit to having romantic feelings for someone outside their partnership. Gen Z came in highest at 31%, millennials at 21%, and men were more likely to cop to it than women—19% versus 12%. The feelings are clearly there. Where things get disputed is everything that comes after.

What actually counts as cheating:

Keeping an ongoing flirtatious text conversation with someone else (41%)

Talking late into the........

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