According to a new global study, men are more likely to forgive an affair than women. The research, from dating site Ashley Madison, showed that 86% of men said they would forgive a partner for straying, whereas only 82% of females would do the same.
While it doesn’t seem like a huge difference, interestingly the type of infidelity that genders struggle to forgive differs, with men more likely to forgive emotional cheating but not physical, and vice versa for women.
Further to that, 85% of females in the study admitted that they had already been forgiven for infidelity, whereas the number of men who had been forgiven was lower at 80%.
The study also looked at financial cheating.
If you’re not sure what that means, ‘financial infidelity’ is defined as “any purposeful financial deceit between two or more individuals” who have “a stated or unstated belief in mutual honest communication around financial matters.” So basically doing something like pretending a new purchase is an old one, saying you bought something on sale but paid full price or hiding purchases and receipts would fall into that category.
The study not only showed that financial cheating is on the rise, but most people consider it to be as serious a breach of trust as an affair. (Shocking, I know).
In fact, 16% of people consider it to be worse. This is also reflected in the consequences of financial infidelity, with almost 20% of respondents reporting that it was financial cheating and not infidelity that led to their divorce.
“Many couples today are facing increased financial pressures and uncertainty so trust in that arena is a must according to our members,” says Isabella Mise, Director of Communications at Ashley Madison. “For most people who come to our site, marriage is less of a fairytale and more of a pragmatic partnership where things like money play a huge role in the quality of life they can build together as a couple and for their family. If that trust is tarnished and financial mistakes are found out, there can be real consequences to the household in their view.”
According to Dr. Tammy Nelson, TEDx speaker and author of When You’re The One Who Cheats, “When you and a partner move in together or get married, you may have a conversation and make an agreement about how to handle shared finances. This includes a financial plan — who will be paying what bills out of which account, how much to save for the future, how much risk you’re both comfortable taking with regards to investments, etc.
“Financial infidelity happens when one or both partners break the agreement, without the knowledge or consent of the other.”
