The author identified 11 infidelity-hiding strategies; more than 70% of the participants indicated a willingness to use at least seven strategies

Catch me if you can: Strategies for hiding infidelity. Menelaos Apostolou. Personality and Individual Differences, Volume 189, April 2022, 111494. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2021.111494

Highlights

•Identified 53 acts that people perform in order to hide infidelity.

• Identified 11 infidelity-hiding strategies

• Machiavellianism was a significant predictor of all infidelity-hiding strategies.

• More than 70% of the participants indicated a willingness to use at least seven strategies.

Abstract: People employ different strategies in order to detect their partners' infidelities. In turn, culprits employ infidelity-hiding strategies in order to avoid detection, and the current research aimed to identify these strategies, and to examine whether they were predicted by the Dark Triad personality traits. More specifically, Study 1 employed qualitative research methods on a sample of 297 Greek-speaking participants, and identified 53 acts that people perform in order to hide their infidelity from their partners. Study 2 employed quantitative research methods on a sample of 300 Greek-speaking participants who had been unfaithful to their current or previous partners, and classified the identified acts into 11 broader infidelity-hiding strategies. The most likely to be used one was the “Be discreet,” followed by the “Eliminate digital evidence” and the “Keep the same behavior.” In addition, more than 70% of the participants indicated a willingness to use seven or more such strategies. It was also found that, participants who scored high in Machiavellianism, were more likely to employ the identified strategies than low scorers. The two sexes indicated a similar willingness to use most of the identified strategies, and for several strategies, significant age effects emerged.

Keywords: Infidelity-hiding strategiesMating strategiesInfidelityDark TriadCheatingMachiavellianism

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1  be discreet

2  eliminate digital evidence

3  keep the same behaviors

4  keep the same routine

5  use friends for coverage

6  secure eletronic devices and accounts

7  infrequent contact

8  not appear suspiciolus

9  show more interest to my partner

10  use different e-mail or phone

11  present the extra-pair partner as a friend or colleague