New Study Reveals Warning Signs of Cheating Spouses

 Posted on October 08, 2013 in Family Law

While infidelity is no longer a commonly cited reason for divorce, cheating can still ruin a marriage. Most spouses can tell that their relationship has changed without knowing that cheating is the reason. Some noticeable signs that your spouse is cheating include dressing better, not being intimate, and taking out new credit cards.

Another possible sign of a cheater is if they start being weird about their cell phone. Maybe your spouse will not leave their phone by you. Maybe they started to password protect their phone even though that was never a concern before. New technologies, like cell phones, have more damning evidence than the traditional lipstick on a collar.

A new study released by Albright College in Pennsylvania reveals another signal that your spouse is cheating. Associate professor of psychology, Susan Hughes, PHD, monitored the difference of phone calls between romantic interests compared to those between same-sex friends. The perceptible changes can be evidence that your spouse is cheating.

The study asked 24 people who are in new romantic relationships to have brief conversations with their romantic partners. They were also asked to have a similar conversation with a close same sex friend. The conversations were kept general, focusing on basics like "how are you" and "what are you doing?"

The one sided recordings were then played to 80 different and independent raters. They reviewed the calls for examples of pleasantness, sexiness and overall romantic interest. Although most conversations only lasted mere seconds, these raters were able to identify the romantic call more frequently than by chance.

The telephone conversations were also subjected to scientific testing such as spectrogram analysis and paralanguage analysis which removed subjectivity. It was noticed that lovers tended to try to match pitch with their partners. Women spoke in lower tones to mimic their companions and men tried to speak in higher ones. The inflection and intonation of the calls also revealed nervous overtones for the caller, possibly showing a romantic vulnerability.

It is hard for any marriage to rebuild trust once a cheater is discovered. If you cannot move past this revelation, contact an experienced family law attorney in Austin who can assist you during this difficult transition.