When we talk about cheating, the first thing that comes to our mind is sexual intercourse with a third party outside the relationship.
So, do we only cheat when we have sexual intercourse?
With the opposite sex other than our partner. Is it cheating if feelings such as liking, love and desire are nurtured?
So, which is more hurtful for couples, emotional cheating or sexual cheating?
According to research, 2/3 of cheating is both They state that it consists of emotional and sexual cheating.
Emotional cheating is when an individual experiences emotional closeness with someone else, falls in love with someone else, or shares a private relationship with someone else while in an ongoing relationship. Having sexual intercourse with someone else while having a romantic relationship is defined as sexual cheating. Previous studies have shown that although sexuality-oriented cheating is more common in men, emotional and sexuality-focused cheating is more common in women.
Many studies have examined the effect of gender on the causal attributions individuals make for extramarital affairs. According to these studies, men describe their relationships mostly as sexual, while women describe their relationships as emotional. At the same time, sexual intercourse was found to be more common among men, and more men reported having sexual intercourse outside of marriage. Emotional togetherness was found to be higher in women. Among the participants who have had extramarital affairs, men stated that they experienced less attachment or no emotional attachment than women.
In our society, women think that it is more acceptable for extramarital relations to be about love rather than sexual intercourse. They indicate. Generally, men distinguish between love and sexual intercourse, but women can often be observed to believe that love and sexuality go together. A woman who realizes that her husband is in a sexual relationship automatically thinks that her husband is no longer in love with her, but with someone else. Because love is a reason they will use to have an extramarital affair. Men, on the other hand, say that their spouses When he realizes that he is emotionally close to someone, he finds it difficult to believe that this relationship has no sexual aspect. This, like the attribution of love in women, is also due to the attribution of sexuality in men from their own tendencies.
A 2004 study titled "jealousy in close relationships" concluded that women feel more jealousy in the face of emotional cheating, while men feel more jealousy in the face of sexual cheating. When men realize that women attribute emotional closeness to sexuality, they may feel more jealous in case of sexual cheating, and women feel jealous in case of emotional cheating rather than sexual cheating, as men generally associate sexuality with excitement and physical relaxation. Even if they suspect that they are cheating or are aware of the existence of an extramarital affair, unfortunately, it sometimes leads to domestic violence and sexual coercion.
Various studies conducted among heterosexual university students have shown that men are more likely to commit sexual cheating and women are more likely to engage in emotional cheating. The hypothesis that they will react harshly has been proven.
Today, sexual infidelity has become a social problem for many societies. In no previous historical period has this problem been as widespread as it is in the modern world. In summary, we can generally say that while women experience infidelity due to emotional deprivation, men cheat due to sexual desire.
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