Fooling Around on Facebook: The Perceptions of Infidelity Behavior on Social Networking Sites

Abstract

This mixed-methods study used content analysis and logistic regression to explore how people interpret Facebook infidelity behaviors, its impact on offline relationships, and how Facebook infidelity compares to online and offline infidelity. Six hundred twenty-eight respondents participated in a story completion task where they finished a narrative concerning questionable behavior on Facebook. Results found 51% of the participants interpreted the Facebook behavior as infidelity, with only 2.9% indicating the behavior was not infidelity. Other findings show that Facebook behavior negatively impacts offline relationships and accessing a partner's Facebook account is a privacy violation. Clinical implications are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Facebook
• social networking
• infidelity
• story completion