Source: Deseret News,
Roughly three quarters of Americans agree that having sex or kissing someone other than your partner is always cheating, but they bring less clarity to questions about online and other non-physical activities.
For example, 51 percent say sending flirtatious messages is always cheating, 19 percent say the same about watching pornography without a partner and 16 percent say following an ex on social media is always cheating. But in each of these cases, at least 25 percent of respondents say these activities “sometimes” constitute cheating.
The survey also found a deep gender divide on what constitutes adultery, with women more likely than men to define 11 behaviors on the survey as cheating. The gap was especially large on activities enabled by the internet, such as maintaining an online dating profile, which 70 percent of women but only 55 percent of men say is always cheating.
Nearly 6 in 10 women (59 percent) believe that sending flirtatious messages to someone other than your partner is always cheating, compared to 42 percent of men, a 17 percentage point gap.
Sixty-one percent of women said that being emotionally involved with someone other than your partner is always cheating, compared to 48 percent of men, a 13 percentage point gap.