Explaining the Hidden Processes of Emotional Infidelity in the Context of Couples’ Digital Interactions

Abstract

This study aimed to explain the hidden processes through which emotional infidelity emerges, develops, and becomes disclosed within couples’ digital interactions. This qualitative study was conducted using thematic analysis. The participants were 20 married individuals living in Tehran who reported direct or indirect experience of emotional infidelity in digital interactions. Participants were recruited through purposive sampling, and sampling continued until theoretical saturation was reached. Data were collected through individual semi-structured interviews lasting between 45 and 75 minutes. After obtaining informed consent, all interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed using NVivo software. The analysis followed the main phases of thematic analysis, including familiarization with the data, initial coding, theme development, theme review, theme definition, and report writing. Credibility was enhanced through member checking, peer review, analytic memo writing, constant comparison, and maintaining an audit trail. The analysis resulted in five main categories: “boundary ambiguity and gradual movement from ordinary conversation to hidden intimacy,” “digital concealment and dual self-management,” “compensation for emotional deprivation and seeking external validation,” “rationalization of emotional infidelity and minimization of virtual involvement,” and “disclosure, collapse of trust, and redefinition of marital boundaries.” The findings indicated that digital emotional infidelity usually does not begin abruptly; rather, it develops through apparently ordinary interactions, repeated responsiveness, disclosure of personal concerns, emotional support, and the construction of a private emotional space with someone outside the marital relationship. Emotional infidelity in digital contexts is a gradual, processual, and multilayered phenomenon shaped by unmet relational needs, ambiguity in digital boundaries, technological possibilities for concealment, and normalization of virtual intimacy. The results highlight the need for digital boundary education, explicit couple communication about online relational expectations, and greater clinical attention to hidden signs of emotional intimacy outside the marital bond.