The Facts of Infidelity
Part 7: Other Statistics on Infidelity
Social consequences of infidelity
Divorce: In the US, and estimated 53% of marriages end in divorce.
Jealousy: Interestingly, research has found that it is because of infidelity that jealousy has been such a fundamental, universal emotion throughout history.
Children: 2 % - 3% of children are conceived through infidelity
Are you a man who suspects your wife of cheating? You should know that 2 to 3% of all children are conceived through an extra-marital affair (Anderson). Unfortunately, the majority of them are raised by men who do know they aren’t the child’s biological father. Thanks to DNA testing, mean can more easily to determine true paternity.
What types of cheating are most common?
Kissing : Intercourse = 2 : 1
Cheating by kissing is twice as common as intercourse:
Statistics from American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, say only 15% of wives report having had sex outside of their marriage. Like men, the number does go up when you include emotional affairs or things like kissing — 35% of wives admit to that.
25% of husbands report having had sex outside of their marriage. When emotional affairs or sexual intimacy without intercourse (such as kissing) are included, the number jumps to 45%.
Public opinion on cheating
In a 2006 poll by the Pew Research Center, 88% of Americans said adultery was immoral — a higher number than for any other of 10 bad behaviors they were asked about.
In a 2009 Gallup Poll, only 6% of Americans believe extramarital sex is morally acceptable.
According to the GSS, Americans are becoming less tolerant of extramarital relationships over time:
In 2006, 80.6 percent of Americans said that infidelity is always wrong – up from 73.4 percent in 1991. (Another 14.6 percent in 2006 said that infidelity is “almost always wrong.”)
In the 2008 Gallup Values and Beliefs poll, Americans as a group found extramarital affairs morally worse than polygamy, human cloning, and suicide.
However, only 50 or 60 percent of Americans say that adultery would be an automatic grounds for divorce.
Our next article, part 8 of this series, will close this series on infidelity. In it we’ll share some “fancier” research on infidelity. We’ll define a few big words in the process.
Contact Tim D. Wilson Investigations
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Other articles in our infidelity series:
