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MBTI Types and Infidelity: What Personality Reveals About Cheating

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MBTI Types and Infidelity: What Personality Reveals About Cheating

Let's address this directly: people search "which MBTI type is most likely to cheat" because they want a simple answer. They want to know who to trust and who to avoid.

Here's the uncomfortable truth: personality type doesn't determine whether someone cheats. Circumstances, values, relationship satisfaction, and individual character matter far more than four letters.

That said, certain cognitive functions and personality patterns do correlate with different relationship behaviors—including how people experience temptation, commitment, and intimacy. Understanding these patterns is useful, as long as you don't weaponize them against individuals.

Why This Question Is Problematic (But Understandable)

Searching for the "most likely to cheat" type assumes:

  1. Infidelity is primarily personality-driven (it's not)
  2. Types behave uniformly (they don't)
  3. Knowing someone's type tells you their character (it doesn't)

Research on infidelity consistently shows that situational factors—opportunity, relationship dissatisfaction, and individual values—predict cheating better than personality traits alone. A committed ESTP is more faithful than a dissatisfied ISFJ.

Still, personality does influence relationship patterns. Let's examine what the cognitive functions suggest.

Factors That Actually Predict Infidelity

Before discussing types, here's what research shows actually predicts cheating:

Relationship factors:

  • Low relationship satisfaction
  • Feeling unappreciated or neglected
  • Poor communication with partner
  • Sexual incompatibility
  • Emotional disconnection

Individual factors:

  • History of infidelity (strongest predictor of future cheating)
  • Low commitment to monogamy as a value
  • Avoidant attachment style
  • High novelty-seeking combined with low conscientiousness
  • Opportunity and perceived low risk

Situational factors:

  • Work travel and time apart
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Social environments that normalize infidelity
  • Significant life transitions

Your MBTI type doesn't appear on this list. Neither does anyone's Big Five profile, Enneagram number, or zodiac sign.

Cognitive Functions and Relationship Patterns

Now, let's examine how different cognitive functions relate to relationship dynamics—including both fidelity-supporting and fidelity-challenging patterns.

Extraverted Sensing (Se) Types: ESTP, ESFP, ISTP, ISFP

Se-dominant and auxiliary types live in the moment. They're attuned to physical experience, responsive to environmental stimuli, and energized by novelty.

Potential fidelity challenges:

  • High responsiveness to physical attraction in the moment
  • May get bored with routine
  • Strong pull toward new experiences
  • Present-focused thinking can override long-term consequences

Fidelity-supporting factors:

  • When engaged, they're intensely present with partners
  • Value authenticity—cheating requires deception they may dislike
  • ISFPs especially have strong personal values (Fi)

The nuance: Se types aren't more likely to want to cheat—they're potentially more likely to act impulsively if they do experience attraction. Intention and impulse are different things.

Extraverted Intuition (Ne) Types: ENTP, ENFP, INTP, INFP

Ne-dominant and auxiliary types are drawn to possibilities and novelty. They see what could be, not just what is.

Potential fidelity challenges:

  • May idealize potential partners (grass-is-greener thinking)
  • Can become bored with familiar relationship patterns
  • Attracted to "what if" scenarios
  • May develop emotional connections through intellectual intimacy

Fidelity-supporting factors:

  • ENFPs and INFPs have strong Fi values—betrayal conflicts with authenticity
  • INTPs and ENTPs may analyze relationships rather than escape them
  • Value meaningful connection over superficial novelty

The nuance: Ne types might fantasize about alternatives more than others, but fantasy doesn't equal action. High-Fi Ne types (ENFP, INFP) often have strong ethical frameworks that prevent acting on attractions.

Introverted Feeling (Fi) Types: INFP, ISFP, ENFP, ESFP

Fi-dominant and auxiliary types have deeply held personal values and strong emotional authenticity.

Fidelity-supporting factors:

  • Betrayal conflicts with their sense of self
  • Value authenticity—living a lie feels unbearable
  • Deep emotional connections aren't easily replaceable
  • Often have strong moral convictions

Potential fidelity challenges:

  • May end relationships before cheating (which is healthier, but still painful)
  • Can fall deeply for someone if they believe it's "true" connection
  • May rationalize affairs as following their "authentic" feelings

The nuance: Fi types are less likely to have casual affairs but may be vulnerable to emotional affairs that they justify as "real love."

Extraverted Feeling (Fe) Types: ENFJ, ESFJ, INFJ, ISFJ

Fe-dominant and auxiliary types prioritize harmony and social bonds. They're attuned to others' feelings and needs.

Fidelity-supporting factors:

  • Strong sense of social obligation and commitment
  • Aware of the pain cheating would cause
  • Value their role in relationships
  • Reputation and social standing matter

Potential fidelity challenges:

  • May have emotional affairs through "helping" or "connecting"
  • Can feel responsible for others' happiness in problematic ways
  • ISFJs and ESFJs may stay in unfulfilling relationships until they break

The nuance: Fe types often struggle to leave bad relationships directly. In rare cases, this can lead to affairs as an exit strategy—which is cowardly but not sociopathic.

Introverted Thinking (Ti) Types: INTP, ISTP, ENTP, ESTP

Ti-dominant and auxiliary types analyze situations logically and may compartmentalize emotions.

Potential fidelity challenges:

  • Can rationalize problematic behavior
  • May compartmentalize relationship and affair as separate
  • ISTPs and ESTPs combine Ti with Se (logic + present-focus)

Fidelity-supporting factors:

  • Often value consistency and keeping their word
  • May find the deception of cheating inefficient or illogical
  • Analyze relationship problems rather than escape them

The nuance: Ti types aren't cold or amoral—they just process ethics through logic rather than feeling. Most reach the same conclusions as Fe types through different paths.

Introverted Sensing (Si) Types: ISTJ, ISFJ, ESTJ, ESFJ

Si-dominant and auxiliary types value tradition, stability, and commitment to established bonds.

Fidelity-supporting factors:

  • Strong respect for vows and commitments
  • Value stability over novelty
  • Remember and honor the history of the relationship
  • Uncomfortable with change and uncertainty

Potential fidelity challenges:

  • May stay in dead relationships out of duty, creating resentment
  • Can be vulnerable to affairs if they finally "break"
  • Long buildup of dissatisfaction may explode unexpectedly

The nuance: Si types are often the most committed partners—until they're not. When high-Si types do cheat, it's often after years of unaddressed problems, not impulsive attraction.

What Limited Research Suggests

Few studies directly examine MBTI and infidelity, and those that exist have significant methodological limitations. However, some patterns emerge:

Extraversion correlates weakly with infidelity in Big Five research. Extraverts have more social opportunities and may be more responsive to external stimulation. This would suggest E types have slightly elevated risk—but the effect is small.

Low conscientiousness correlates more strongly with infidelity. People who struggle with impulse control and long-term planning are more likely to cheat. This doesn't map cleanly to MBTI, but P types might show slight elevation (very speculative).

Low agreeableness correlates with infidelity. This maps roughly to low Fe/Fi, suggesting that thinking-dominant types without developed feeling functions might be at higher risk. But this is confounded by gender, relationship satisfaction, and dozens of other factors.

Bottom line: The effect sizes are small, the methodology is often weak, and individual variation swamps type differences.

The Types People Assume Cheat (And Why They're Wrong)

"ESTPs are cheaters"

ESTPs get this reputation because they're charming, present-focused, and enjoy physical experience. But ESTPs in committed relationships are often intensely loyal precisely because they value authentic experience—including authentic connection.

"ENTPs are cheaters"

ENTPs get this reputation because they're flirtatious, enjoy novelty, and argue everything. But debating whether something is ethical and actually doing it are different things. Many ENTPs are more faithful than they seem because they've actually thought through the ethics.

"INFJs never cheat"

INFJs get a pass because they're seen as morally pure and emotionally deep. But no type is immune to infidelity. INFJs can develop intense emotional connections that they convince themselves are "destined" or "different."

"ISTJs are always faithful"

ISTJs are seen as loyal and duty-bound—and they often are. But ISTJs who've spent years in unfulfilling relationships can eventually break in unexpected ways, precisely because they suppressed needs for so long.

What Actually Matters

If you're worried about infidelity—whether in yourself or a partner—focus on these things instead of personality type:

Communication: Can you discuss needs, desires, and dissatisfaction openly? Relationships where problems can be addressed rarely produce cheating.

Commitment: Has this person explicitly committed to monogamy? Do their actions match their words historically?

Satisfaction: Are both partners getting their needs met? Sexual, emotional, intellectual? Unmet needs create vulnerability.

Values: What does this person believe about cheating? Have they cheated before? Past behavior predicts future behavior better than type.

Boundaries: Are there clear agreements about what constitutes infidelity? Emotional affairs? Flirtation? Porn? Clarity prevents "accidents."

Conclusion

There's no MBTI type that's "most likely to cheat." There are cognitive patterns that influence how people experience attraction, commitment, and temptation—but these don't determine outcomes.

Faithful INTPs exist. Cheating INFJs exist. Every type contains the full spectrum of human fidelity and betrayal.

If you came here looking for a type to avoid, you're solving the wrong problem. Focus on individual character, relationship satisfaction, and honest communication. These predict fidelity far better than four letters ever could.

Want to understand your own relationship patterns at a deeper level? Take our comprehensive personality test to explore your psychological drives—including how you approach connection, commitment, and intimacy.

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