Married cheaters find affairs satisfying, study shows
While it might be morally wrong, it turns out cheating partners don't have too many regrets.
There are very few people who will admit they approve of people in romantic relationships cheating, except maybe the cheaters themselves.
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Unfortunately, while it might be an unpopular opinion, it turns out that most married people taking part in extramarital affairs don't feel too bad about it.
A recent study conducted by researchers at the Johns Hopkins University’s Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences showed some quite shocking results.
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The researchers conducted a survey using over 2,000 users of Ashley Madison, a website that connects married people looking for extramarital affairs, and shows how differently people view affairs as to how they are generally portrayed in movies or series.
In pop culture, the cheating spouse is usually full of regret and remorse when their partner discovers they have been unfaithful, but as it turns out, people who do cheat on their spouse feel emotionally and sexually fulfilled through these affairs and tend to not feel any regret.
As for the reason why people tend to cheat?
People have a diversity of motivations to cheat. Sometimes they'll cheat even if their relationships are pretty good. We don't see solid evidence here that people's affairs are associated with lower relationship quality or lower life satisfaction.
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While this might not be what most couples want to hear, the study does help paint a more clear picture of fidelity and infidelity and understanding it.
Although some of us might admittedly never understand why people cheat.
The take-home point for me is that maintaining monogamy or sexual exclusivity especially across people's lifespans is really, really hard and I think people take monogamy for granted when they're committed to someone in a marriage. People just assume that their partners are going to be totally satisfied having sex with one person for the next 50 years of their lives but a lot of people fail at it. It doesn't mean everyone's relationship is doomed, it means that cheating might be a common part of people's relationships.
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Main image courtesy of iStock/AndreyPopov