Who is unfaithful once, will always be unfaithful?

Do people who commit infidelity usually repeat this type of betrayal? Let's see.

One of the great fears that unites most monogamous relationships is that the partner will be, or may be, unfaithful on occasion. This fear is even more accentuated if one of the two knows that the other has been unfaithful on other occasions or even in the same relationship.

Therefore, a person who has experienced infidelity on the part of his or her partner may be even more fearful if one of the partners knows that the other has been infidelity on the part of his or her partner can be sure that it will never happen again. Or put another way, is a person who has been unfaithful once more likely to be unfaithful again in that or any other relationship?

What are the causes of infidelity?

Traditionally, monogamous relationships are based on sexual and emotional exclusivity. However, infidelity is a real fact that occurs in a large number of couples and in both men and women.

It is not easy to know the exact figures about how many people have committed one or more infidelities throughout their lives, since it is an answer that is usually quite falsified with the intention of maintaining a good social image. Even in private psychology or sexology consultations, people are not always able to confess an infidelity.

Although the main subject of this article is to clarify whether a person who has committed an infidelity is more likely to commit it again, both in their current relationship and in subsequent relationships, first of all let's review what risk factors influence when someone is unfaithful.

According to various relationship-related research, there are a number of common risk factors for infidelity. These include:

• Low degree of commitment to the current relationship.
• Decreased or lack of satisfaction.
• Acceptance of sexual relationships outside the couple's relationship.
• Insecure, avoidant or anxious attachment.Avoidant or anxious attachment.
• Individual differences in levels of inhibition and sexual arousal.
• Higher incidence in men than in women (although this factor is changing over time).

Personality, context and other variables

In addition, the personality and character of the individual also modulates to a large extent all the risk factors mentioned above. Generally, people who are hedonistic, with egocentric tendencies and a high need for positive rewards will be more likely to commit a greater number of infidelities in their lifetime.

Likewise, the context in which the couple lives can also exert a powerful effect in facilitating a person to have an affair. That is to say, if the only elements in a couple's relationship that unite both people is a mortgage or the children they have in common, there is a much greater likelihood that one (or both) will end up looking for relationships outside the couple.

However, there are no rules, patterns or determining symptoms that ensure that a person will be unfaithful for sure.

Finally, when in doubt as to whether an unfaithful person will be unfaithful for life or if, on the contrary, it is able to maintain a monogamous relationship with total exclusivity; researchers in psychology and sexology determine that there are no absolute laws, since recidivism is conditioned both by the personality of the person and by the reasons or causes that motivate it.

Who is unfaithful tends to repeat the betrayal?

Historically, studies about infidelity in couples have focused on the predictors of this to try to determine what leads a person to be unfaithful repeatedly; through the development of retrospective and cross-sectional studies.

However, a latest study by a team at the University of Denver, led by psychologist Kayla Knopp, has conducted a five-year, real-time investigation, of stable romantic relationships (both married and unmarried) (both married and unmarried) of a sample of more than 1200 people.

However, the study only intended to collect information from those people who had been in at least two different relationships during those five years, so the sample was finally reduced to more than 400 individuals, both men and women.

Every so often (approximately six months) the following question was asked of the participants: "Have you had sexual intercourse with anyone other than your partner since you started dating seriously?". In addition, they were also asked whether they suspected that their current partner was having sexual relations with other people..

Of course, the research took into account both the social desirability of the participants and any consensual agreements they might have with partners about having extramarital affairs.

Conclusions

The results obtained after the five years of research revealed that 40% of the sample had had sexual relations outside of the couple, both in the firstboth in the first solo relationship and in all other relationships. Similarly, 30% of the participants reported that they suspected or knew that their partner had been unfaithful on some occasion.

While the likelihood of cheating is significantly higher if one has cheated in the past, a person who cheats in one relationship is not inevitably destined to cheat in the next.

On the other hand, Knopp's study also revealed that those who perceived their partner as unfaithful were more likely to think the same in subsequent relationships. They were also more prone to infidelity if they thought that their partner was cheating or had cheated on them on occasion.

In conclusion, the study found that people who had been unfaithful in one relationship were three times more likely to be unfaithful in the next. were three times more likely to be unfaithful in the next one, compared to those who had notcompared to those who had not cheated on their partner in the first one.

However, as mentioned at the beginning of the article, it is extremely complicated to determine the real probabilities that a person who has been unfaithful once will be unfaithful for the rest of his or her life. The combination of the factors: main motivation for the first infidelity, the person's personality and the current relationship status are the best predictors when trying to find out whether or not a person is likely to be unfaithful again.