3.7 Characteristics of online affairs

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This is an image of a gold wedding ring circling the letter C on a computer keyboard.

The distinction between ‘offline’ and ‘online’ affairs is becoming increasingly blurry, which means that lots of the theory and research (e.g. about predictive factors) about ‘traditional’ infidelity is also relevant to online affairs. However, Hertlein and Stevenson (2010) suggest that there are seven factors that that may – in theory at least (because currently there is little research on this topic) – make online affairs different and perhaps potentially easier to engage in. You’ll learn more about these in Activity 3.7.

It is worth noting however, that there is not enough research (yet) to really know what might predict an online affair or if the predictors are in any way different to those for face-to-face affairs. This said, there is increasing evidence for something referred to as the Online Disinhibition Effect (Suler, 2004).

The Online Disinhibition Effect is related to the ‘acceptability’ factor in the table above and refers to the finding that people are less inhibited online (e.g. Fletcher-Tomenius and Vossler, 2009). ‘Less inhibited’ in this context means behaviourally – people may be doing things online that they would not in other spaces – and emotionally, in that they are quicker to reveal personal things about themselves. Online disinhibition increases the likelihood that internet relationships involve strong emotional connections and may build a sense of intimacy, trust and acceptance more quickly than in face-to-face settings. The combination of quickly developing emotional intimacy and behavioural disinhibition makes it easier to understand why someone might, for example, engage in cybersex.