Personality, Marital Satisfaction, and Probability of Marital Infidelity

Personality and marital satisfaction may help to account for the likelihood of marital infidelity. We hypothesized that people with particularly disagreeable spouses (i.e., those low on Agreeableness) and particularly unreliable spouses (i.e., those low on Conscientiousness) will be less satisfied with their marriage, leading them to estimate a higher probability of becoming extramaritally involved in the next year. Two hundred fourteen newlyweds comprising 107 couples completed measures assessing their personality, their marital satisfaction, and their likelihood of infidelity. The results provide some evidence that personality and marital satisfaction may help to account for which marriages are likely to include infidelities and which are likely to remain faithfully intact.