Infidelity has gone digital with the popularity of “sexting,” but that doesn’t make the reaction to it any different than old-fashioned cheating, according to a new poll of married couples.
YouGov.com found that most women, 74 percent, believe “sexting” messages amounts to cheating on them.
And it doesn’t end there. If their partner has an emotional, but not sexual, relationship with a someone else, that too is considered cheating.
YouGov found that about one-fifth of married partners cheat on each other, and that men think about it more than women.
It was the expanding views of cheating that caught the attention of the polling outfit.
“As to what actually constitutes cheating, men and women largely agree that having sex crosses the line. Women are more likely than men, however, to view other things as being cheating.”
“This is particularly true with ‘sexting’ or forming an emotional, not sexual, relationship with someone else. While 74% of women consider sexting to be cheating, only 59% of men agree. Similarly while 56% of women say you’re a cheater if you strike up an emotional relationship with someone else only 38% of men also think that is cheating.”
Former Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y., resigned in a sexting scandal. AP Photo
Sexting isn’t unfamiliar in Washington. Former New York Rep. Anthony Weiner, married to Hillary Rodham Clinton’s top aide Huma Abedin, resigned in a sexting scandal.
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected].
