It seems that betrayal really is in the eye of the beholder.
A recent HuffPost/YouGov survey of 1,000 U.S. adults found that people’s definition of emotional infidelity depends on who’s doing the cheating. Sixty percent of respondents said that if their partner developed a deep emotional connection with someone else, it would be considered cheating. Only 18 percent said that it wouldn’t be considered cheating.
However, when a separate group of 1,000 adults was asked the reverse — “Say that you were in a committed relationship and you developed a deep emotional connection with someone other than your partner. Would you consider that to be cheating?” — the number who said “no” increased to 29 percent of respondents. Fifty percent said “yes,” and 21 percent were not sure.