The Profession With the Highest Rate of Infidelity
Surveys reveal that the medical field is home to the most cheaters.
Posted August 28, 2025 | Reviewed by Michelle Quirk
No one ever wants to be cheated on . In fact, the fear of infidelity often drives us to panic and seek answers—who does it, why they do it, and how to prevent it—so that we never have to face that kind of pain in our relationships.
In our search for answers and self-protection, we’ll look for patterns that can tell us which kind of person is most likely to cheat on us. But when these patterns turn into unproven generalizations, it can be dangerous.
In 2018, Ashley Madison, a controversial dating service for those who are already married or in relationships, asked more than 1,000 users what they did for a living. Among women using the site for extra-marital affairs, the most commonly reported profession was working in medicine, with 23 percent of users working as doctors or nurses. Five percent of male users also worked in medicine.
“A combination of long hours of potential stress mixed with a natural reaction to stress just might be the reason these women in the medical profession seek out an affair,” suggests Isabella Mise, director of communications at Ashley Madison.
More recently, in 2025, another extra-marital dating service from the United Kingdom, called Illicit Encounters, appears to have reaffirmed this finding, reporting that nurses make up the largest proportion of female users on their website.
Many are questioning the truth and weight behind these claims, considering that these reports are based on users who chose to use these sites for affairs and do not represent the entire industry of healthcare workers. Sure, some nurses might cheat. But are all nurses prone to cheating?
To avoid giving in to misconceptions and stereotypes, it’s essential to look at the evidence objectively.
Could Nurses Be More Prone to Cheating?
Healthcare workers often have to manage long and unpredictable work hours, high-stress situations, and the emotional weight of their work, which can cause grief , exhaustion, anxiety , and severe mental and physical burnout .
A 2017 study published in the Journal of Clinical Nursing assessed the levels of burnout in nursing home caregivers in France and found that 40 percent of participants struggled with caregiver burnout.
Often, the tendency to cheat has been attributed to the stressful nature of such work.
In a 2021 study of more than 360 doctors and nurses, published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, researchers found that 21 percent of participants were either currently in or had been in an unfaithful relationship in the past, and more than 80 percent of such individuals were doctors.
Interestingly, in contrast to the trope of adulterous female nurses, researchers found that men in the study were almost five times more likely to cheat than women, with men also being more likely to engage in sex in the doctor’s room while on duty.
Work hours also seemed to play a role in this pattern. People who worked on the nighttime emergency schedule were almost 18 times more likely to be unfaithful to their partners than those who worked part-time.
Participants blamed the demands of their job, including having to spend time away from home for many hours and needing to release their stress. They also admitted that because of their work, it was easier to justify their absence at home, and likely easier to cover up their infidelity.
However, it’s essential to remember that correlation is not causation. While their occupation may have created conditions that tested them, the choice to be unfaithful was still deeply personal.
Could professions like healthcare create conditions that facilitate infidelity? Certainly. Does being a part of that profession inevitably and directly cause infidelity? Absolutely not.
Here are some of the most salient reasons why people cheat , which have much more to do with themselves than what profession they’re in:
Regardless of the context, infidelity ultimately appears to be the result of deep internal conflict, rather than external temptation. Rather than focusing on what a person who cheats does for work, it’s time to start paying attention to the fact that they haven’t necessarily done the inner work to bring open communication, vulnerability, and honesty to their relationships.
A version of this post also appears on Forbes.com.
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Mark Travers, Ph.D., is an American psychologist with degrees from Cornell University and the University of Colorado Boulder.
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This article is part of the Bringwise Psychology Journal — daily insights on human behavior, mental health, and personal growth.