New research published in The Journal of Sex Research has delved deeper into the reasons why some people cheat on their baes, revealing that a “lack of love” is most often to blame.
The survey asked 495 peeps if they had ever strayed while in a relationship and their motivations for doing so.
Seventy-seven motivations for infidelity were named by participants. The study authors grouped these by commonality to find:
1. 77% cheated because of lack of love
2. 70% because they felt neglected
3. 70% because of a situational reason
4. 57% to boost their own self esteem
5. 43% out of anger
6. 41% because they felt little commitment to their bae
Furthermore, they found that guys were likely to cheat for variety, attraction and situation while girls were likely to be unfaithful because they felt neglected and ignored.
“Our results also show personality correlates with infidelity motivations,” the researchers stated.
Those with commitment issues were motivated by sexual variety while hopeless romantic types were driven by attraction, low commitment, lack of love, and neglect.
“These findings highlight multifaceted motivations underlying infidelity, moving beyond relationship deficit models of infidelity, with implications for research and psychotherapy involving people’s romantic relationships.”
This article originally appeared on Women’s Health.
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