How Common is Cheating in College Relationships? Statistics on Infidelity Prevalence Among College Students
By Bedbible Research Center / April 26, 2023
This is the first comprehensive meta-study of all scientific papers on the prevalence of infidelity amongst college students. It is therefore the first deep-dive into how common cheating is in college relationships.
Our results showed that between 29% and 65% of all college students will self-report to have cheated on a partner.
Please feel free to share the results of this study while referencing the article.
Key insights
- 65% of college students in relationships have sex or fall in love with someone other than their partner.
- 21% of all college students had been both the victim and perpetrator of infidelity.
- 64% of all college students have seen someone on Tinder they knew were in a committed relationship.
- Male college students are +58% more likely to cheat on a partner, compared to female college students.
- 29% of college student self-report to be unfaithful.
- 7.4% of college students are currently dating multiple people.
- Up to 73% have seen a friend on a dating app that they know are in a committed relationship.
- 1 in 4 college singles have flirted with someone in a relationship
65% of college students have sex or fall in love with someone other than their partner
About 65% of college participants reported that they had had sex with someone else, fallen in love with someone else, or both while involved in a committed relationship.
About 80% of participants suspected or knew that their partner in a committed relationship had had sex with someone else, fallen in love with someone else, or both while involved with the participant.
The study was conducted across two college student groups, first a small preliminary study of 53 participants, and secondly a study of 655 college students.
64% of college students have seen someone on Tinder they knew were in a committed relationship
- 64% of college students have seen someone on Tinder they knew were in a committed relationship.
- 73% of college students have male friends on Tinder that are on a relationship.
- 98% believe that Tinder is used for cheated to some extend (12% believe it’s used for that all the time).
- 56% of college students have female friends that are on Tinder while in a relationship.
- 7.6% of college students self-report to be actively dating multiple people.
Below are the full list of results from the study.
| Infidelity questions about Tinder | N | % |
|---|---|---|
| Spent time with somebody met on Tinder | ||
| Yes | 60 | 12.5% |
| No | 421 | 87.5% |
| Messaged somebody on Tinder | ||
| Yes | 83 | 17.1% |
| No | 401 | 82.9% |
| Physically intimate with somebody met on Tinder | ||
| Yes | 43 | 8.9% |
| No | 438 | 91.1% |
| Sexual with somebody met on Tinder | ||
| Yes | 35 | 7.2% |
| No | 449 | 92.8% |
| Seen somebody on Tinder who knew was in exclusive relationship | ||
| Yes | 310 | 63.9% |
| No | 175 | 36.1% |
| Male friends used Tinder while in relationship | ||
| Yes | 354 | 73.1% |
| No | 130 | 26.9% |
| Female friends used Tinder while in relationship | ||
| Yes | 272 | 56.1% |
| No | 213 | 43.9% |
| How often people use Tinder to cheat | ||
| Never | 11 | 2.3% |
| Rarely | 42 | 8.7% |
| Sometimes | 216 | 44.6% |
| Often | 157 | 32.4% |
| All the time | 58 | 12.0% |
| Tinder effective way to meet people while in relationship | ||
| Very ineffective | 72 | 14.8% |
| Ineffective | 97 | 20.0% |
| Neither effective nor ineffective | 119 | 24.5% |
| Effective | 172 | 35.5% |
| Very effective | 25 | 5.2% |
| Current relationship status | ||
| Dating multiple people | 41 | 7.6% |
| Not in a relationship | 277 | 51.1% |
| Dating one person exclusively | 196 | 36.2% |
| Cohabitating, Engaged, or Married | 27 | 5.1% |
| All College Students | 485 | – |
49% of male college students and 31% of female college students have committed sexual infidelity
Found that 49% of male and 31% of female college students had engaged in sexual infidelity.
In other words, male college students are +58% more likely to cheat on a partner, compared to female college students.
13% of college students reported currently perpetrating infidelity
- 13% of college students reported currently perpetrating infidelity.
- 24% of college reported having found out about being a victim of infidelity.
- 21% of college had been both the victim and perpetrator of infidelity.
30% of students have previously engaged in infidelity
- Approximately 30% of college students reported having engaged in infidelity.
Having some college education is a predictor for cheating
Institute for family studies found that:
While having a college degree is not linked to a higher chance of cheating, having only some college education is a predictor for cheating.
Almost equal shares of college-educated adults and those with high school or less education have been unfaithful to their spouse (16% vs. 15%).
However, the share among adults with only some college education is as high as (18%).
1 in 4 college student singles have flirted with someone in a relationship
- One in four college singles have flirted with someone who they know are in a relationship on social apps
- 25% of college students in relationships are currently flirting with other people online.
- 10% of college students in relationships have met up with the other person they flirted with.
- 1 in 5 students are very comfortable with flirting with someone on a dating app without their partner knowing.
A survey study of 3558 North American college students. Of which 1,247 were males and 2,311 females. Of the 3,558 college students 2,142 students identified as single, while 1,418 students said they were in a committed relationship.
Reference: OneClass (2019) Is Your College Sweetheart Cheating on You?. OneClass
5.6% report to have cheated, but 43% have been cheated on
Considering the fact that a lot of infidelity cases are never revealed to the victim it is an astounding difference in this study:
Only 5.6% respondents report to have cheated on a significant other, but a fairly large number of participants (43%) have been cheated on.
This speaks volumes to the implicit biases in self-reported measures. Especially on questions where respondents are expected to be biased towards a specific answer.
100 college students participated in the online survey.
Reference (old): https://www.theonlinerocket.com/featured/2020/02/12/sex-and-love-survey-reveals-differing-sexual-experiences/
29% of college students self-report to have been unfaithful
Participants were 181 young adults (118 females, 63 males) recruited from a midsized state university in the northeastern United States.
Genotypes were grouped as 7R+ (at least one allele 7-repeats or longer) or 7R- (both alleles less than 7-repeats); the 7R+ genotype was present in 24% of the sample.
50% of 7R+ individuals reported being unfaithful compared to only 22% of 7R- individuals.
From this knowledgde base we can calculate the percentage of college students who have cheated in a committed relationship. We simply also have to account for the amount of missing data on the specific question (which was 4%).
Therefore we find that:
- 24% of the sample was genotype 7R+, and 50% of this group have cheated on a partner.
- 72% of the sample was genotype 7R-, and 22% of this group have cheated on a partner.
The collective percentage of college students that have cheated on a partner is calculated as:
Percent of college students that have cheated = ( 50 x 24 + 22 x 72 ) / ( 24 + 72 )- In summation we find that the estimated percent of college students that have cheated on a partner they were in a committed relationship with was 29%.
