A new study on bedroom behaviors could give spouses who aren’t sure of a partner’s fidelity more impetus to file for divorce. The study, recently published in the Archives of Sexual Behavior, indicated that so-called “sexual narcissists” were more likely to cheat on their partners.
While the same holds true for narcissists of any kind, the study notes, it is particularly noticeable when it comes to sexuality. Researchers James K. McNulty and Laura Widman examined 123 newlywed couples over the course of their first four years of marriage. The study took place “both in the lab and through questionnaires, in which the participants gave self-reported measures of sexual satisfaction, marital satisfaction, and infidelity,” Huffington Post reports.
Methodology
Participants were targeted with questions specifically related to sexual narcissism, defined as “having a grandiose sense of sexual skill, sexual exploitation, sexual entitlement, and lack of sexual empathy.”
HuffPo notes that in order to assess sexual narcissism, researchers asked a series of “agree or disagree” questions to participants on a 5-point scale “with phrases like ‘I could easily convince my spouse to have sex with me if he or she was unwilling,’ ‘I really know how to please my spouse sexually,’ and ‘I feel I deserve sexual activity when I am in the mood for it.’”
Results
At the end of four years, McNulty and Widman discovered participants with higher levels of sexual narcissism demonstrated a greater drive to cheat on their partners than participants with lower levels. “The spouses who were more confident about their sexual skill were more likely to commit an infidelity,” the researchers explained, adding that spouses who exploited their partners sexually and felt entitled to sex were more likely to commit adultery. Furthermore, husbands who lacked sexual empathy for their wives were prime candidates for infidelity.
If you’re worried that infidelity might lead to divorce papers, then it may be a good idea to get a feel for where your spouse stands when it comes to narcissism of any kind, but especially the bedroom. “Interventions may benefit from identifying and targeting individuals who have narcissistic tendencies that manifest in the sexual domain,” the researchers added.
Do you believe that sexual narcissism will inevitably lead to divorce forms? To what degree do you feel narcissism plays a role in your relationship?