The Breakdown: This study can tell if your partner is going to cheat on you

A new study has shown exactly why young women choose to cheat on their significant other.

The answer is all based on your attachment style – if you are either overly anxious or avoidant, you are far more likely to cheat on you partner.

A recent study published in The Journal of Sex Research looked at 104 millennial women (those ages 18-35) who had said they’d cheated on their partners within the last six months.

This study bases itself on The Attachment Theory; the idea that our emotional bond with our parents as children is responsible for the bond that develops in emotionally intimate relationships as adults.

The research says it all boils down to two very distinct attachment styles; the overly attached anxious person (sometimes known as the clinger) and the avoidant person (who usually describes themselves as having “commitment issues”).

The Overly Attached Personality

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That’s probs 46 more texts than is needed.

This one may be surprising, but the people who are anxious about their partners cheating on them, or need their partners to be close to them always, are actually the most likely people to cheat.

The study shows that if you need a lot of attention in a relationship and you are not receiving it, you will look elsewhere.

The Avoidant Personality

Screen grab from Mean Girls movie
The classic ‘commitment phobe’.

This response was more predictable, and works similarly to not having your needs met within a relationship.

For those people who have trouble allowing their partners to get close to them also require independence and autonomy, something that they feel cannot coincide within a partnership.

The avoidant personality cheats to prove they are not dependent on their partner.

Neither of these personality types would typically be described as ‘healthy’.

Whilst this study looked specifically at women, ‘overly attached’ anxious personalities and ‘avoidant’ personalities are not gender specific.

But if you are in a relationship with a female and they exhibit one of these personalities, they are statistically more likely to cheat on you.

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Well that’s that, then.

If you recognise yourself falling into one of these categories, don’t stress, it is possible to over-ride your attachment style.

According to Dr. Berit Brogaard, if you practice being self-aware of how you interact within your relationships and with your partner, it will most likely help improve your unhealthy attachment styles.

Or better yet, be a good person and don’t cheat on your partner.

 

 

 

Milly Haddrick

Contributor

Milly is passionate about the issues and concerns of women navigating their way through the world of sex, dating and relationships, with a side passion for brie, dark chocolate and red wine.

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