This post has been corrected.
Many urban Indians don’t seem to believe the dictum “once a cheater, always a cheater.”
Nearly half of all respondents in a recent survey said they are willing to forgive their partners’ infidelity, while 20% of them are willing to completely forget it ever happened.
The Hotstar Out of Love survey, conducted by video streaming platform Hotstar, in partnership with New York-based marketing firm Mindshare and mobile in-app survey firm Unomer, included 1,088 married smartphone users aged between 18 and 64. The respondents, 50% of whom were women, were based in metros and tier 1 Indian cities.
Most respondents consider forgiving infidelity because they believe “it’s a one-time thing,” the survey said. “Individuals choose to forgive because the partner who has been cheated upon makes an emotionally smart decision. At the core, humans forgive because there’s a silent voice that says it’s a natural phenomenon,” Ramon Llamba, a life coach, therapist and a quantum medicine doctor, said in the survey report. “The next big reason is having a family and they do not want to disrupt their lives by taking any drastic step.”
Among the major metros, 38% of respondents in Delhi said they would fight with their partner for cheating, while 48% of respondents in Mumbai said they will choose to forget it ever happened.
The affair
The survey also showed that every person has his or her own view of infidelity.
“Over the past few years, the definition of ‘an affair’ has evolved beyond the physical aspect of a relationship to now include emotional and social media influence as well,” the survey report said.
Almost half of the respondents said that physical intimacy is the worst form of cheating, while 37% feel that way about emotional infidelity. Besides, 16% of respondents are bothered by social media infidelity.
Correction: This post was published with the headline: “Nearly half of urban Indians are willing to forgive their partners for one-time infidelity.” That was incorrect. Half of the respondents said they would forgive infidelity, and the top reason is believing it’s a one-time thing.