How common are affairs?
It’s difficult to gauge whether affairs are indeed more common or just more openly discussed, especially in light of news stories about celebrities and public figures that make it appear cheating is on the rise. Research on infidelity is largely based on surveys in which people self-report, so they may or may not tell the truth and people may not all agree on definitions, such as whether to count a one-night stand as an affair or whether oral sex is really sex. The most recent large-scale data are from the 1998 General Social Survey, conducted by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago. It found that of 2,169 people who had been married at some point, 17.9% reported sexual infidelity. Some researchers say there’s a 50-50 chance today that one partner will have an affair during a marriage; that includes non-physical relationships. But Snyder adds that there is a risk in overestimating the prevalence or acceptability of affairs. “It becomes a self-fulfilling pro
