Cheating - absolutely reprehensible, an adventure or just a slip-up?

According to an article published by the newspaper "Bild" in August last year, one person in five has already cheated in currently ongoing relationships. However, cheating or infidelity - what does this actually mean? Man or woman - who cheats rather and more frequently on their partner?

What is the attraction and where does cheating actually begin? Opinions differ on these questions' answers. According to definition of Wikipedia cheating is "a colloquial description for a temporary sexual relationship between two human beings of whom at least one is married or in any other solid social partner relationship". In short: Cheating on the relationship partner or adultery. For some people cheating already starts when thinking about it, some think it starts when kissing another person and for other people not until a sexual relationship begins. For certain persons cheating is just a slip-up, some claim not being able to be faithful anyway and for quite a few people simply the thought of cheating means the end of their ongoing relationship.

As different as the several interpretations of cheating are the causes which persuade a person to cheat on the partner even though being in an obviously happy relationship or marriage. While men often miss the liveliness in bed or due to their midlife crises, women are often looking for lost sympathy and emotional closeness. In general, the attraction of the forbidden always plays a major part.

Depending on each character the habitudes regarding scruple are completely different. Regardless of whether being a man or a woman - some quarrel with themselves for a long time if they are generally able to do such a thing to their partner, others are specifically looking for an infidelity or an affair beside their actual relationship.

However, what if the own partner is cheating? Are you able to forgive? If so, in which circumstances? Is there anything like reasonable causes or like fault? Or is the cheater thrown out immediately? In fact, the risk to be discovered and the danger of thus compromising the ongoing relationship is omnipresent during an infidelity as well as in case of longterm cheating.

There is debate about whether men cheat more often than women. A survey published by the "Undercover Lovers" agency in which 4000 persons were consulted concerning their affinity regarding infidelitys showed something different. Thus women are the ones who cheat even with several other partners and tendentially at an earlier time in their relationship while men often content themselves with only one lover. However, 4000 persons are not one in five by no means, thus, generally speaking, one can assume that the gender ratio in terms of cheating is relatively balanced.

Finally, the cheaters as well as the persons cheated on must learn for themselves whether it is only a slip-up, an exciting adventure or an alarm signal pointing to a failed marriage.