You hope to forgive and forget if you choose to stay with your partner after he or she admits to having an affair.
But according to one study, the harmed party is almost nine times more likely to deviate.
Researchers at California State University call it “revenge intimacy” and say anger is often the motivation, with the goal of inflicting similar pain on your wayward partner.
The study, published in the scientific journal Deviant Behavior, asked 2,000 married men and women about cheating.
Couples who have been cheated on are more likely to distance themselves, according to a new study (File Image)
So-called “revenge intimacy” is motivated by anger and the desire to inflict reciprocal pain on your unfaithful partner (File Image)
They also measured levels of commitment, passion, and intimacy to help gauge their impact on infidelity.
Their results showed that people who perceived that their partner had sex with another person were 8.72 times more likely to have an affair.
The researchers also found that levels of intimacy in a relationship had no deterrent effect on infidelity.
They said, “Giving a person everything they want won’t stop them from cheating.”