TY - JOUR
T1 - Love thy neighbour
T2 - Personality traits, relationship quality, and attraction to others as predictors of infidelity among young adults
AU - Gibson, Kirstian A.V.
AU - Thompson, Ashley E.
AU - O'Sullivan, Lucia F.
PY - 2016
Y1 - 2016
N2 - Infidelity is defined as the violation of a couple's assumed or stated agreement concerning emotional and/or sexual exclusivity. The current study examined the utility of personality traits (i.e., the Big Five and SIS/SES - an individual's sexual response to sexual desires, arousal, and behaviours are based on the balance between sexual excitation and sexual inhibition; Bancroft & Janssen, 2000) relative to relationship quality and attraction to others in predicting reports of infidelity among a sample of young adults (ages 18-26 years). A total of 131 men and 164 women from the US who reported being in a romantic relationship were recruited using MTurk®, an online crowdsourcing survey tool. Participants completed a series of measures assessing demographics, relationship quality and investment, sexual experience, sexual attitudes, attraction to others, and personality traits, including the Big Five and SIS/SES. A notable minority (16.6%) of participants reported at least one occasion of past infidelity during their current romantic relationship (yes/no reports); however, reports of infidelity increased significantly when individuals reported actual sexual, romantic, and online infidelity activities (78.6%). Personality traits within the Big Five and SIS/SES models were not significant predictors of infidelity. With each occurrence of emotional attraction to a person other than their current partner, the odds of reporting infidelity increased by 51.6%. The findings are discussed in terms of implications for counselling and education regarding infidelity, as well as continued research on risk factors for infidelity among young adults.
AB - Infidelity is defined as the violation of a couple's assumed or stated agreement concerning emotional and/or sexual exclusivity. The current study examined the utility of personality traits (i.e., the Big Five and SIS/SES - an individual's sexual response to sexual desires, arousal, and behaviours are based on the balance between sexual excitation and sexual inhibition; Bancroft & Janssen, 2000) relative to relationship quality and attraction to others in predicting reports of infidelity among a sample of young adults (ages 18-26 years). A total of 131 men and 164 women from the US who reported being in a romantic relationship were recruited using MTurk®, an online crowdsourcing survey tool. Participants completed a series of measures assessing demographics, relationship quality and investment, sexual experience, sexual attitudes, attraction to others, and personality traits, including the Big Five and SIS/SES. A notable minority (16.6%) of participants reported at least one occasion of past infidelity during their current romantic relationship (yes/no reports); however, reports of infidelity increased significantly when individuals reported actual sexual, romantic, and online infidelity activities (78.6%). Personality traits within the Big Five and SIS/SES models were not significant predictors of infidelity. With each occurrence of emotional attraction to a person other than their current partner, the odds of reporting infidelity increased by 51.6%. The findings are discussed in terms of implications for counselling and education regarding infidelity, as well as continued research on risk factors for infidelity among young adults.
KW - Attraction
KW - Infidelity
KW - Personality traits
KW - Relationship quality
KW - Young adults
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85009349552&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85009349552&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3138/cjhs.253-A2
DO - 10.3138/cjhs.253-A2
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85009349552
SN - 1188-4517
VL - 25
SP - 186
EP - 198
JO - Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality
JF - Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality
IS - 3
ER -