My wife thinks it's much worse, and she says this what concerns her the most.
She says it doesn't bother her when she sees another woman flirting with me or leaning over me, but when she thinks someone is trying to get close to me emotionally she sees a threat and steps in.
There is no one, de facto definition of cheating. It's wildly open to individual interpretation. Or, at least that's what people think it is, open to their own, personal interpretation. It's about how something makes them feel, and feelings aren't always logical, reasonable, or right. More confident, less territorial people don't label everything or anything as 'cheating'. You have to begin with that, dissect it, and not all people will agree on how to define an infraction.
I won't comment on which is worse because the lack of unanimous definitions nullifies the question in my opinion.
But one thing I did find interesting, that I read years ago, was that females feel more threatened or upset by a man having an emotionally intimate relationship (or conversation) with someone else, while males feel more threatened and upset by their partner having a sexual relationship or exchange with someone else. This plays in to people's deepest insecurities, what they think their value is, and what they might lack. It's about feeling slighted and/or replaceable. People hate to feel vulnerable or inadequate. Sometimes these things are a betrayal of trust. Sometimes they just tap into someone's greatest fears about themselves, but are not founded.
It's not like which is worse? But it's more like which is more concerning.
We have clear signs, clear steps, clear boundaries about physical cheating. We know very well that's it's happening, we are aware of that. So the person who is honest and never going to cheat would clearly set the boundaries and won't let other person to step in inside it ot he won't step outside of that boundaries.
But emotional cheating isn't so much clearer. It's not seen most of time. People get involved with other person emotionally just because they are kind, of good helping nature. They think like they are just friends and they are just being good to eachother or they are just sharing their hearts with eachother and we don't realise that how we have got addicted to share emotions with that another person. Here most of time we don't know where should we stop or we don't realise that where is danger, we don't realise that we are getting closer to another person emotionally but we actually should be closer to our partners.
That's why it becomes more important for us to stop you whenever we sense the danger to protect you to cross the boundary and make you realise that this is wrong and so you should stop here.
She needs her head examined.
There is no such thing as "emotional cheating" - you are either cheating, or not. There is no in between.
Sure there can be misunderstandings and unrequited infatuation, but they do not amount to "cheating" in a court of law, or in normal social circles.
It takes two to tango, as they say and you should get her into therapy for her issues.
I agree with your wife.
Sex with someone doesn't carry the same weight as an emotional attachment. Once an emotional attachment is created it can be hard to break. Depending on the couple emotional cheating can do more damage and create more havoc.
Aiming to clarify the fog around emotional vs. physical cheating, let's dive in! Your wife's perspective is quite insightful and not alone in her boat. Emotional cheating can indeed feel like a bigger betrayal for many because it's all about connection, sharing secrets, and emotional intimacy that's meant to be reserved for your partner. Whereas, physical cheating is, well, pretty cut and dry. Getting emotionally close to someone else can sometimes feel like a slow burn that erodes the foundation of trust and connection in a relationship. It's essential to keep those emotional fences high around your marriage, preventing any unintentional lovebombing or emotional affairs from sprouting. Always keep the lines of communication open with your wife, ensuring you both feel secure and heard. Embrace transparency, my friend, and you'll navigate these waters like a pro! 😉
Opinion
26Opinion
Your wife should not be worried about women trying to develop an emotional connection with you, as any old desperate woman could do that, and you're not going to fall in love with the woman based on an emotional connection unless you initially find the woman physically attractive. But that leads to my next point: if she finds that you do have an emotional connection with another woman, then that is definitely a legitimate cause for jealousy, as it implies that she would have had to have been physically attractive enough for you to reach the emotional attraction stage. Plus, we all know that men can have sex with any woman, and it doesn't necessarily mean anything. It's the women that men don't have sex with, but that are evidently ones they think are attractive enough to move mountains for that women have to worry about, cause it interferes with the guy's free time available to spend time and resources on her.
Any form of cheating is not less nor worse.
Both are horrible but yes emotional is worse
u They are both horrible. Comparisons are meaningless.
I would think that if you are emotionally cheating on your partner with someone else that it will eventually get to the physical act of cheating.
After all, how long can you have an emotional only relationship for, years? What is the purpose of that?
They would both be devistating to your partner if she finds out about it.
What is it about a person that secretly has to backstab their partner in the first place.
I don't understand after reading some of these opinions on here that physical cheating seems to be ok to do.
Doesn't anyone have any morals anymore?
That is what social media has done to people. How sad!
I think emotional cheating is worse, obviously any kind of cheating is bad, but there's something about emotional cheating which is so horrible. If it's just physical, there's an element of 'okay this person doesn't respect me and maybe doesn't find me as attractive as the cheating partner' BUT if there's actual emotions involved, that's more like 'i've opened up myself entirely to this person and they've completely rejected me because they must prefer the cheating partner in all aspects' if that makes sense lol?
plus people say cheating is 'accidental' sometimes (which i think is BS) but you can't even convince yourself that emotional cheating is accidental
it's just so icky, any cheating is horrible, how are you disrespecting your partner and relationship like that, how could you even do something like that to someone you CLAIM to love - and emotional cheating is kind of like opening up in the exact same way to someone other than your partner, it's awful
Cheating is cheating. It isn't difficult to not cheat. I mean honestly in ancient Rome if a wife cheated on her husband he was given a sword and could kill his wife and her lover. If the husband cheated on his wife same thing. Cheating was very rare in Rome. One of those things where we should learn from history and implement it in society. Not many would cheat if there were actual consequences
Yes much worse in my opinion. If my partner had sex with another woman and told me I'd be annoyed but not devastated. If he'd kept it from me and I found out another way, I'd be even more annoyed that he lied to me.
If he had been messaging her for a while and forming an emotional bond, I'd be devastated and it would be over.
Women pretty commonly say nonsense like that. It’s a manipulative tactic. This way she can get angry with you having a close work friend, meanwhile she’s blowing guys in the coat room at her workplace. But it’s okay because “emotional cheating is worse”. Ell oh ell!
They’re both bad, but emotional connections linger longer and perhaps cause more insidious damage whereas physical cheating risks are limited to standard STD communication or health risks.
For me? Cheating is never right, (equally wrong) whether emotional or physical, but between your question and @AmandaYVR's response. I've learned something new about how men and women perceive cheating differently today.
I think physical is worse personally, also what even is emotional cheating? Simply complaining about your relationship problems to another person is cheating? Then literally every guy at a bar complaining about their wives to their friend groups are cheating…
No, physical is worse.. emotional cheating is the first step in bonding with them and eventually it'll turn physical sooner or later... while physical cheating is the last step, they officially claimed your partner lol..
Emotional affairs involve giving someone your heart, the damage of which is impossible to repair.
No, you can fix emotional cheating with a lot of help. You can't fix physical cheating because a person can become pregnant and then they have entered a blood covenant with the person letting them enter them, bond with them etc. You can also be exposed to the other person's fluid, diseases, herpes, HIV etc. Emotional cheating is terrible but it is not worse than physical cheating.
Bot sure about worse… but she knows women arw cunning manipulative animals and they will destroy what other women have.
As well… she knows how dunce men can be… being ‘boob stupid’.
Nope. If someone's in love with another, cool, I don't knock love. But fucking someone outside of our boundaries risks me getting a disease.
I'm kinda with your wife , emotional is really putting all on the line and its generally a strategic plan for positioning..
you will leave your wife because you're in love with someone else. but you will never leave your wife just cuz sex is better with someone else.
u most people would value the soul more than the body...
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