Seemingly benign extradyadic behaviors (e.g., buying/receiving gifts or talking on the phone) may be perceived as infidelity under certain circumstances, therefore causing distress and conflict in romantic relationships. A policy-capturing method was used to illuminate the relative role of contextual factors (secrecy, frequency of the behavior, and the victim's familiarity with the rival) in perceiving whether a mundane, everyday extradyadic act is perceived to cross the line from benign to infidelity. In two sessions, 135 participants completed individual difference measures and rated 30 different vignettes in which the extradyadic behavior (i.e., direct messaging on social media) was held constant, but levels of contextual factors varied. Participants perceived secrecy as the most important contextual factor in deciding whether a mundane extradyadic behavior constituted infidelity, followed by frequency. The victim's familiarity with the rival was deemed least important. Higher reactive jealousy predicted higher perception of the behavior as infidelity and greater anticipated emotional distress following the behavior. Implications for how couples discuss the boundaries of their relationships and understand the source of emotional distress experienced after seemingly benign extradyadic behaviors are discussed.

中文翻译：

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背景因素在判断平凡的额外行为是否不忠时的相对重要性：一项政策捕获研究

在某些情况下，看似良性的额外行为（例如，购买/接受礼物或打电话）可能会被视为不忠，从而导致浪漫关系中的痛苦和冲突。使用策略捕获方法来阐明背景因素（秘密、行为频率以及受害者对对手的熟悉程度）在感知平凡的日常外向行为是否被认为跨越从良性到不忠的界限时的相对作用。在两次会议中，135 名参与者完成了个体差异测量，并对 30 个不同的小插曲进行了评分，其中外在行为（即社交媒体上的直接消息）保持不变，但背景因素的水平有所不同。参与者认为，在决定平凡的额外行为是否构成不忠时，保密性是最重要的背景因素，其次是频率。受害者与对手的熟悉程度被认为是最不重要的。更高的反应性嫉妒预示着对不忠行为的更高认知以及行为后更大的预期情绪困扰。讨论了夫妻如何讨论他们的关系界限以及理解在看似良性的额外行为后所经历的情绪困扰的根源的含义。