Virtually everyone says it is not right and should not be condoned, but about a quarter of all married adults do it. That’s right, cheat on their spouse. According to one recent survey, 22% of all adults in a monogamous relationship have cheated on their partner. This is according to a survey conducted jointly by MSNBC.com and iVillage. The Lust, Love and Loyalty survey was completed in February and involved over 70,000 adults completing the survey. Of the respondents, 54% were men with an average age of 43. The 46% of women responding had an average age of 38. The majority of the survey participants have been with their partner for more than 12 years. Nearly half of the respondents reported having cheated on a partner at least one time in their lives.

According to the survey, when individuals cheat on their mate, the affair typically is brief. About a third of the affairs reported lasted less than a week and about half were done in one month. The majority of affairs (65%) ended within six months. Cheating tends to happen well into the relationship. Based on the poll results, people tend to enter into affairs when they are three to five years into a relationship with a partner.

What is considered cheating varies but it is nearly universal that engaging in sex with someone other than your partner clearly meets the definition. Over two-thirds of the respondents indicated that communicating online with someone in a sexually explicit manner or viewing one another via a webcam is considered cheating. Over half of the men and nearly two-thirds of women feel that sending emails with sexual content to a co-worker is an indication of infidelity.

Why are people entering into affairs? Nearly half of men entered into an affair seeking more sex or more sexual variety. Men see it as something new and different to enhance their sex lives. Women tended to seek companionship away from their partner because they needed more emotional attachment or seeking validation that they are desirable. Forty-two percent of men and women find that a strong physical attraction is important. Women tended to enter into an affair to seek revenge on their partner more so than men. Interestingly, 40% of men and 53% of women stated that they have been cheated on at least once. Cheating was a factor in 54% of the divorces reported in the survey.

Who are people having affairs with? For both men and women, about 40% had flings with friends. A little more than a third of the men reported having an affair with a co-worker. Not surprisingly, men were more likely than women to meet someone in a bar that lead to an affair.

If you suspect your partner of cheating, you might want to read a new book by Robert C. DeMoulin titled, Exposing Infidelity. He provides fourteen common signs of infidelity. One of the signs by itself may not be an indicator but one or more in combination can be a sign. Is your mate working late more often, taking more business trips, or wearing their wedding ring less often? Or, is your partner less desirous of sex? The book provides tips to identify infidelity, including "evidence-finder" software to recover deleted email, pictures or other files. The software can be used to confirm your suspicions with finding real evidence.

For more information, go to:

www.love.ivillage.com/lnsproblems/lnscheating/0,,bcrbz818,00.html

If you are interested in meeting senior singles, go to www.ErosOver40.com, an online senior singles dating website.