Friday, November 05, 2010

Reactions to Infidelity



A young psychology student of my acquaintance is conducting a survey on emotional and cognitive reactions to infidelity. The more people she can find willing to complete the survey, the more generalizable her results will be. It's short and fun and thought provoking, so if you have the time and the inclination, please visit her site here.

The responses to the survey are completely anonymous and the results will be reported in aggregate form only. Your participation is voluntary and you may discontinue at any time. If you have any questions, the contact information is on the survey.

If you know of anyone else who might be interested in taking the survey, please pass on the link. I'll be posting the results when they become available.

Thanks for your help!

13 comments:

Charles Gramlich said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Steve Malley said...

Well. Turns out nothing goes with morning coffee like dredging up old memories of cheating-ass skanks...

Good survey, though!

Pax Deux said...

Well, the conversation has certainly taking an interesting turn since I last checked!

But I am curious: how does she account for the impulse towards dishonesty that these types of surveys seem to be plagued by?

cs harris said...

Steve, Sorry!

Pax Deux, unfortunately these surveys simply rely on the honesty of those participating. It might be an interesting study to investigate how many people lie on a survey, but I'm not sure how you'd do it!

Steve Malley said...

Pax, the survey was largely rating feelings: how angry were you, how jealous, how happy, etc. There were a couple questions about how the affair ended, but quite general.

If you can't tell the truth about your own feelings in an anonymous survey, why take it. But I suppose there are those types out there who lie just to be lying, or just to keep in practice...

orannia said...

Hmmm. I will try and have a look at the survey tonight. Not sure how far through it I will be able to go...to experience infidelity one has to experience relationships, and I'm still working on the latter :)

Susan/DC said...

Two things:

1) Realized I couldn't take the survey because I haven't cheated on my husband and I don't think he's cheated on me, so I can't respond to the questions about my emotions in either situation.

2) Don't know if the answers are statistically valid because they were not collected as part of a randomly selected sample. That's a question for her professor, however, not me to answer.

Susan/DC said...

P.S. I know there are people who won't read a book or see a movie if there is infidelity. A subset of these people define infidelity quite broadly and start the clock ticking from the minute the Hero and Heroine meet. I don't automatically reject a work of fiction because infidelity has occurred; it's one of those "depends on the author's skill" issues. And I certainly don't condemn a book or disbelieve in the HEA because the hero slept with his mistress after saying "pleased to meet you" to the heroine at a ball.

Pax Deux said...

Steve, you made me laugh.

I should have been more specific. My question was in the vein of those raised by Susan/DC. I guess I am suffering from a case of one Internal Review Board meeting too many -- time to go out sangria, my favorite thought killer, with my husband, of course ;-)

orannia said...

On a completely separate thought, just discovered my library system has ordered four copies of Where Shadows Dance...so I've placed my hold :) Sorry Candy - all my copies of the series to date are MMP and so I can't buy a different size...my OCD wouldn't let me sleep :) Once it is released in MMP format though...it's all mine! *grin*

cs harris said...

Orannia, they're also interested in hearing from those who haven't experienced it--and your survey would be REALLY short!

Susan, True, those responding are self-selecting and therefore are more likely to be those who have been effected by infidelity. I've no doubt that will be addressed in the results. The emphasis is on emotional reactions, so it wouldn't effect the results as much as if it were simply trying to get an idea of percentages of adults who have dealt with the issue.

Yes, people's definitions of infidelity do differ, with some considering "emotional" infidelity worse than sexual. That's one thing that is addressed.

cs harris said...

Orannia, that is good news. And I totally understand the OCD problem. I still have my trade size edition of What Remains of Heaven lying around my office; I can't figure out where the @#$% I'm supposed to put it when it doesn't match anything.

Firefly said...

Infidelity is demoralizing to say the least, for the partner who has to tolerate it! Regardless of sex! I do understand that as human beings we all have our frailties & at some point in time whilst in a committed relationship, call it temptation if you will, does come along! But, the decision is ours to make & strength of character plays a very large part in that decision. However, if the permanent relationship we are in is a good/strong one, why on earth would one want to jepordise it for the sake of a brief affair! The feeling of betrayal would, I would imagine never quite leave one & ultimately we are responsible for the choices we make in life.