“Let My Fingers Do the Talking”: Sexting and Infidelity in Cyberspace

This exploratory project investigated the behaviors of sexting and infidelity on the internet. The researchers placed a survey on a web site designed for married people to find sexual partners outside their marriage. Using a sample of 5,187 respondents, the study explored how people use the internet to find partners. Using both descriptive statistics and binary logistic regression analysis, the researchers found that the respondents use the internet to find real-life partners, both for dating and for sex hookups, but many are anxious about being caught. Females are more likely than males to engage in sexting behaviors, while females and males are equally as likely to cheat both online and in real life while in a serious real-life relationship. Older males, however, are more likely than younger males to cheat in real life. The results suggest that perhaps people who are using dating web sites do not conform to the “official” standards of dating culture, but that maybe the standards are changing.