While the vast majority of Canadians say they have never been unfaithful to a partner, about one in five say they have seriously considered cheating, according to a new poll released Thursday.
A new MainStreet Postmedia poll conducted in the wake of the Ashley Madison hack found that 80 per cent of Canadians claim to have never cheated on their significant other compared to 10 per cent who admitted to being unfaithful. Ten per cent of respondents refused to answer the question.
“We see a gender divide with 13 per cent of Canadian men saying they have cheated compared to just 8% of Canadian women,” Quito Maggi, President of Mainstreet Research said in a statement accompanying the poll.
The numbers are more or less equal however when we look at those who have seriously considered cheating on their partner. (Twenty per cent) of Canadian women and (23 per cent) of Canadian men say it’s more than crossed their mind.”
The survey also found that what constitutes cheating differs for men and women.
According to the poll, 17 per cent of women believed watching porn classifies as cheating compared to just nine per cent of men.
“Most believe signing up for a dating website or service, like Plenty of Fish or OKCupid qualifies as cheating (77%), though Canadians are split on flirting and 72% say going to a strip club doesn’t count,” Maggi said.
The telephone poll randomly surveyed 2,459 Canadians on Aug. 24, 2015. The poll is considered accurate plus or minus 1,98 per cent, 19 times out of 20.
