Have you ever been cheated on during a long-term relationship? If you have, don't worry there are more fish in the sea. But if you haven't and you don't think it will happen to you, it is actually more common than you think. A study showed that in over 1/3 of marriages, either one of of both parties admit to being unfaithful. But why does this happen so frequently? If you are happily married, or just happy together in a relationship, shouldn't that be enough for you?

Another study of 495 people (average age of 20) who had admitted to cheating at least once on a partner, wanted to know what had actually caused them to cheat. Simply put, they wanted to know the why, and the results gave us some rather concrete results.

Here are the main reasons people said that they decided to cheat:

- 57% of respondents said they cheated in order to boost their own self-esteem.

- 70% said that they cheated because they felt like they were being neglected by their partner, or because of situations conditions such as being drunk.

- 74% said that they simply wanted to experience a wider range of sexual partners.

But the number one reason why people cheat is because they feel a lack of love from their partner. A whopping 77% of respondents said that this was one of the factors into their decision to cheat.

If you are wondering which party is more likely to cheat in a long-term relationship, it actually comes down to the length of time the relationship or marriage has been going on. If it is the woman who is cheating, it is more likely to happen between 6 and 10 years into the relationship. Whereas men are more likely to cheat after the relationship has passed the 11 year mark.  

We are not advocating for people to head out and start cheating on their significant others. All we are trying to do is show you that there may be an underlying cause as to one or both people in a relationship decide to be unfaithful to each other.

What do you think? Let us know in the comments.