Finding Forgiveness: Links Between Personality, Self-Esteem, Attachment, and Commitment on Women’s Actual and Anticipated Reactions to Infidelity

Understanding the intricate social and psychological processes influencing mental health is key to crafting effective treatments. Intimate romantic relationships play an important role in individual well-being. The aftermath of relationship dissolution can have devastating emotional effects, particularly in cases of deception or betrayal, such as infidelity. The current study aimed to explore women's actual and anticipated responses to infidelity in their romantic relationships. Specifically, this study focused on the roles of personality, self-esteem, adult attachment, and commitment in forgiveness and relationship continuation. Four hundred heterosexual women (<i>M</i> = 22.27 years old, <i>SD</i> = 6.30) responded to study measures. About 49% of the sample reported real experiences of partner cheating, and 43% of those women chose to stay post-infidelity. The research findings suggest that previous experiences with infidelity and personality, specifically extraversion, may be predictive of women's anticipated reactions to a partner's affair (<i>p</i> = .002). Attachment style and self-esteem may also weakly relate to forgiveness and relationship stability for imagined instances of infidelity. For actual reactions to infidelity, results related to intrapersonal variables and past cheating experiences were inconclusive (<i>p</i> = .894). In this sample, women were more inclined to forgive emotional infidelity than sexual infidelity. Due to the small effects observed, the results of this study should be interpreted with caution. Future research into the underlying intrapersonal factors influencing responses to infidelity is warranted. Insights gained from this study could contribute to developing effective treatment interventions for individuals and couples navigating the complexities of relational dishonesty.