Why infidelity is on the rise

last updated 8 January 2015

Naomi Schaefer Riley

The Wall Street Journal

Among young marrieds, there’s a lot of cheatin’ going on, said Naomi Schaefer Riley. The number of unfaithful wives in their 20s rose 20 percent over the past 15 years, studies show, while the number of unfaithful husbands in that age group grew 45 percent. “Why is there so much cheating?” Today, marriage experts say, most people get married later than they used to, and only after they’ve had “multiple partners.” The most common way people exit these early relationships is “by cheating on their current partner.” That’s a habit that’s hard to break, especially when young people hit a rough spot in their marriage. Another temptation arises from the fact that many people in their 20s maintain “close, long-lasting friendships with members of the opposite sex.” In previous eras, such friendships were unusual, and generally ended when people got married. Twenty-somethings now keep on seeing old opposite-sex friends, on the grounds that these relationships are not romantic. But as some unfortunate spouses have discovered, some of these bosom buddies turn out to be “friends with benefits.”