Emotional Consequences of Infidelity: Guilt and Regret Experiences Among Perpetrators of Cheating in Heterosexual Dating Relationships

Abstract

Perpetrators of infidelity have to deal with the consequences of their actions, guilt, and regret being a few out of the many. Differences in these outcomes could be based on the kind of infidelity (emotional or sexual) they were involved in and the process of infidelity (spontaneous or planned) they have gone through. To explore the difference, the present study collected data on 196 adults (male = 97, female = 99; Mage = 24.54 years) who had cheated on their romantic partners. Out of the total, 136 participants were involved in self-reported sexual infidelity, and 60 participants were involved in emotional infidelity; 147 participants reported spontaneous infidelity and only 49 participants reported that the process was planned. Results showed that the process of infidelity (spontaneous/planned) significantly affects post-infidelity guilt. However, no role of type of infidelity (emotional/sexual) was found. Furthermore, results showed a significant interaction effect between the type and the process of infidelity on guilt and regret. Sexual-spontaneous infidelity provoked the highest guilt and regret, whereas sexual-planned infidelity led to the slightest guilt and regret. The findings that the emotional consequences of infidelity depend on its nature will help in understanding the aftermaths of infidelity and could apply to helping the perpetrators.