Resisting Temptations of Infidelity in Imagined and Virtual Contexts

Abstract

Relationship scientists have focused on the attitudes, perceptions, motivations, and consequences of infidelity, though a framework of the decision-making process that underlies infidelity is lacking. The central aim of my dissertation was to test a novel decision-making model associated with infidelity as it unfurls. Three experiments were conducted to test the factors that underlie infidelity decisions using an imagined scenario paradigm (Studies 1 and 2) and a novel virtual reality method (Study 3). In Study 1, high temptation imagined scenarios were associated with higher sexual attraction toward the alternative, cognitive dissonance, and infidelity likelihood. Relationship satisfaction moderated the effect of dissonance on infidelity decisions, such that the relationship between dissonance and infidelity was strongest among less satisfied partners and weakest among highly satisfied couples. In Study 2, the effect of cognitive depletion on the infidelity decision-making model was explored. Cognitive depletion did not affect the underlying processes associated with infidelity. The effects of temptation were replicated in which high temptation imagined contexts led to higher sexual attraction, cognitive dissonance, and infidelity. In Study 3, a novel virtual reality method was used to test the infidelity decision-making model. High temptation VR contexts (compared to low temptation VR contexts) were associated with higher sexual attraction toward the alternative. Temptation did not have a direct effect on cognitive dissonance or infidelity, however findings showed support for the decision-making model. Exploratory findings revealed gender differences in all three studies, in which men (compared to women) were more likely to cheat in the imagined scenarios (Studies 1 and 2) and the VR scenario (Study 3). Together, these studies provide insight into the decision-making process that underlies infidelity in real time.