Cheating is one of those topics that yields infinite debate and uncovers all sorts of differences in how people view trust, sex, and forgiveness. Whilst the concept of open relationships and polyamory has become ever more normalised and common in society it’s also true that views on cheating somehow remain somewhat unchanged – they feel as though they are somewhat impervious to societal changes and evolutions and remain deeply rooted in the world of emotions.
And yet it remains fairly common! One expert places the rates of cheating at 25% among men and 14% among women, quite a discrepancy among both the sexes and quite a high percent.
Often the conversation around cheating evolves around two questions: why did the cheating occur and should the cheater be forgiven? Invariably the first of these two questions will decide the latter in some manner. However, it’s also true that attitudes towards cheating diverge hugely from country to country, or in some cases from city to city even!
Illicit Encounters, the dating platform for married people in the UK, has become something of an expert on the topic and question of cheating having a veritable treasure trove of information and data. Recently they released statistics showing the top towns (not cities) in the UK for extramarital affairs which raise a few eyebrows as well as allow for a few observations.
First and foremost the statistics seemed to suggest that the anecdotal reports of people going at it in the suburbs are true. Posh commuter towns all had higher rates of cheating than other places in the UK, with Windsor coming in first place with 4.29% of people having had extramarital affairs. Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire came in with a 3.98% rate of cheaters, followed by Staines in Surrey with a respectable 3.16%.
In fact the statists would seem to indicate a correlation between disposable income and extra marital affairs, with Surrey having 8 of the top 10 towns for cheating in the UK!
With the average house price in Surrey coming in at around £55,000 it really would seem to suggest that money can’t buy you happiness!
