NEW YORK CITY – Watching porn and exchanging flirty emails may raise a partner’s eyebrows, but get caught sexting or engaging in phone sex — even with a stranger — and a formerly romantic relationship may be over.
Those are among the implications brought to light by a recent survey at RomanceBeat.com, a blog that claims to “find the pulse of romance in pop culture.” About 550 people responded to a dozen questions intended to gauge where people draw the faithfulness line.
Most striking among the results: An overwhelming majority of voters (99 percent) indicated they don’t believe watching pornography constitutes cheating. By much slimmer margins, voters also gave tacit approval to exchanging flirty emails (63 percent said flirty emails aren’t cheating), reconnecting with an old flame (57 percent), going out stag for an evening of dancing and flirting (85 percent) and receiving lap dances (82 percent).
Exchange explicit mobile messages with anyone but a partner, though, and 65 percent of survey respondents would cry “foul.” Sixty-four percent consider voice phone sex to be cheating, even when the participants have never met.
The survey was conducted online during August.
