Male vs. Female: Definitions of Cheating

A study from McKenna, Smith, and Green of 104 participants, 62 females and 42 males, found that 33 percent of respondents felt that any form of cybersex was an act of cheating as real as any physical sexual act with someone other than one’s partner, with women being 39 percent more so than men at 23 percent. “Thus 33% of the respondents felt that what occurs in the virtual realm is rather more real than virtual; that sexual actions that take place in cyberspace, in the physical absence of another person, constitute cheating on one’s partner in the same way as if one undertook sexual actions with someone in the flesh. Women are more likely than men to feel that cybersex always, or under some circumstances, constitutes cheating (McKenna, Smith, Green, 2001).”