Cheating Partners Most Common In These Professions

Cheating is most common in these professions and when key age milestones are approaching, according to a survey.

Cheating is most common in these professions and when key age milestones are approaching, according to a survey.

Bankers, pilots and doctors head the list of cheating professionals, according to a survey.

People working in finance, aviation and healthcare are most likely to cheat on their partners.

Cheating is more common as people reach milestone birthdays, such as 29, 39 and 49, a recent study also revealed.

Here is the full list of nine professions from the survey conducted for an infidelity dating website:

  1. Financial (Bankers, brokers, analysts, etc.)
  2. Aviation (Pilots, flight attendants, flight pursers, etc.)
  3. Healthcare (Doctors, nurses, nursing assistants, etc.)
  4. Business (CEOs, managers, secretaries, etc.)
  5. Sports (Athletes, instructors, representatives, etc.)
  6. Arts (Musicians, models, actors, photographers, etc.)
  7. Nightlife Industry (DJs, dancers, waiters, etc.)
  8. Communication (Journalists, public relations, communicators, etc.)
  9. Legal (Lawyers, secretaries, prosecutors, judges, etc.)

Over 5,000 women who were currently cheating, or have cheated on their partner, were surveyed.

The survey found that two-thirds cheated at work, despite 85 percent saying it was better to avoid relationships with colleagues.

The advantage of the workplace, though, is it easier to find someone there and it makes work more exciting, survey respondents indicated.

Naturally, the main problem was if workplace romance ended badly and you had to continue working with that person.

Cheating when approaching a milestone

Another survey of 42,000 adults has revealed that people are more likely to cheat when approaching a milestone birthday, like 30, 40 or 50.

This seems to be about the search for meaning.

Dr Adam Alter, first author of that study, said:

“People audit the meaningfulness of their lives as they approach a new decade.

People tend to either conclude happily that their lives are meaningful or they decide their lives lack meaning.

Some people might struggle to come to terms with the conclusion that their lives lack meaning. They might seek a socially damaging extramarital affair.”

The study was published in the journal PNAS (Alter & Hershfield, 2014).


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Author: Jeremy Dean

Psychologist, Jeremy Dean, PhD is the founder and author of PsyBlog. He holds a doctorate in psychology from University College London and two other advanced degrees in psychology. He has been writing about scientific research on PsyBlog since 2004. He is also the author of the book "Making Habits, Breaking Habits" (Da Capo, 2013) and several ebooks.