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Abstract
This study integrates communication, motivational, and behavioral elements to identify factors that lead to the use of key information seeking strategies people employ to confirm or avoid suspicions about a partner’s potential cheating. Individuals (N = 246) who suspected a partner’s infidelity reported engaging in five general suspicion confirmation strategies: conversation, intrusion, snooping, surveillance, and avoidance. SEM results revealed that individuals who reported more suspicious partner behavior, greater suspicion and uncertainty about a partner’s infidelity, suspicion-related anxiety, and a stronger desire to confirm their suspicions reported using the suspicion confirmation and avoidance strategies more often.
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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
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Notes on contributors
Daniel J Weigel
Dr. Daniel J. Weigel is a Professor Emeritus in Human Development and Family Studies and the Interdisciplinary Social Psychology Program at the University of Nevada, Reno. His research interests include communication processes in intimate relationships, focusing on issues of infidelity, sexuality, and commitment.
M. Rosie Shrout
Dr. M. Rosie Shrout is an assistant professor of Human Development and Family Science at Purdue University. She also has a courtesy appointment in Psychological Sciences, and is a faculty associate of both the Center on Aging and the Life Course and the Institute of Inflammation, Immunology, and Infectious Disease at Purdue. Her research examines how relationships stress, such as infidelity, conflict, and chronic health conditions, affect couples’ relationships and mental and physical health.