Adultery in the Mainstream

    As a society, it seems, we have cheating on our minds. In recent years, famous cheaters have included Bill Clinton, Jesse Jackson, Bill Cosby, Jack Welch, Prince Charles, Frank Gifford, Kobe Bryant, Paula Zahn, Brad Pitt, David Beckham, Gary Condit, Rudy Giuliani, Newt Gingrich, and a randy group of Desperate Housewives. Has adultery been mainstreamed? Is the concept of ‘forsaking all others until death do you part’ just a quaint relic of an idyllic past that never was?       

To find out, researchers have been investigating the number of marriages affected by infidelity and the resulting statistics vary widely. A University of Chicago study found that in any given year, four to six percent of marriages experience infidelity, with 25 percent of all marriages affected by the pain adultery sometime during the life of the marriage. The University of Michigan’s General Social Survey discovered that 15 percent of those who were married at the time of survey had had at least one other partner besides their spouse.       
 
After reviewing 25 studies, the late psychologist Shirley Glass, known as "the godmother of infidelity research," concluded that 44 percent of husbands and 25 percent of wives had broken their marriage vows. Although the studies point to between 15 and 44 percent, no one really knows how many marriages have been affected by adultery. “These figures are hard to research because there is so much secrecy,” said Dr. Don-David Lusterman, author of “Infidelity: A Survivor’s Guide.” Whatever the actual figure is, it’s fair to say that a significant percentage of American marriages have been affected by the pain of infidelity.