by It is an unfortunate truth that infidelity occurs occasionally in relationships, and it is something that many of us fear and are obsessed. Especially in this digital age, cheating is no longer always physical.
If you are cheated, this can lead to long -term emotional damage and feel too frightening to enter new relationships, but it is surprisingly common here in Great Britain. Around 18-20% of married couples have infidelity at some point, according to the illegal encounters with married dating website. This is supported by an earlier YouGov study in which at least every fifth British had an affair.
So what drives people to cheat a partner?
The therapist Debbie Keenan tells Yahoo UK that there are four common reasons why her customers are unfaithful – and follow them with the revelations from the YouGov study.
Although research is now a decade old, according to Keenan, Keenan has not changed that they have not changed, but that they have been reinforced by the digital age.
Why do people cheat?
Feel flattered by attention
According to YouGov, the most important reason was why women who were cited for fraud were flattered by attention – mentioned by 44% of women and 35% of men.
“This has been enlarged in the past decade because you can make a dating app in the morning and meet someone at lunchtime, it’s about accessibility,” says Keenan. “The temptation is in your pocket around the clock, and whether it is someone who likes a picture you have taken in, or a comment that fed your confirmation, your self -esteem, your self -worth immediately.”
Further support This is a 2025 -study with 2,000 British commissioned by Netflix to mark the start of the show cheat: unfinished business. It found that one of four (23%) looked outside of their relationship because they were attractive and wished to feel desired.
Feel emotionally disadvantaged
Keenan says she usually hears from customers that they “come over like ships at night”.
She says that there is often a separation, “so of course you are emotionally disadvantaged because your partner’s attention is somewhere else”.
Our obsession of smartphones, social media and connecting with the world games in part of it, explains Keenan. “You enter a café, how many couples or families and the majority of people sit at the same table on their phones and scrolls? As soon as a notification comes from, take a look at your phone. This is a common topic with the couples I see.”
Keenan adds that busy life makes it difficult to connect. “People juggle many plates and especially women juggle many plates,” she says. “This emotional coordination is on the list.”
Dissatisfied with your sex life
Statistics show that dissatisfaction with sex life is one of the leading reasons why people cheat:
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Yougov states that 32% of men and 15% of women were approved for fraud due to dissatisfaction with their sex life
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The Netflix study mentioned above showed that 24% of people were unfaithful because they had a higher sex drive than their partner
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16% cheated because they felt that their sex life was not adventurous enough.
According to Keenan, the normalization of pornography and the fact that it is more accessible than ever can cause problems. “It is in the click of your fingers. I also think of only fans, you can continue there and see the perfect body, the very desirable, perfect picture – that’s such a temptation,” she explains.
“How can you compete with it, this perfect picture that is there on the click of a button? And a message or click can undo years of trust. What is the intention behind it? Why are you going? Are you not satisfied with your partner? I always look at that.”
Be afraid of commitment
Keenan says she had customers who cheated because they felt “caught”.
“I see that very much, ‘I’m stuck, I am caught,’ are words that I hear,” she explains. “And then there is a real conflict there, because then you either have to go or be satisfied with something that you don’t really want. This will cause a massive break in the whole line, because if you have to be satisfied with something you are not 100% sure, resentment will cause yourself.”
Advice on how to deal with fraud
According to the charity, these are the best tips to bypass when you find that your partner was unfaithful:
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Give yourself time to process the news
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Talk to your partner and ask questions so that you can judge exactly what happened. Make sure you focus on the facts
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If you need help to speak to you, contact the therapist of a couple
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Avoid to blame yourself, your partner or the person with whom she had the affair
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Take your time to think about what you want to happen next and whether the relationship should continue
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