Survey: Physical, emotional cheating top Pinoys’ infidelity experiences

February 16, 2026 – 8:00 AM

An unhappy couple (jcomp via freepik)

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A survey revealed that Filipinos identified “physical cheating” and “emotional cheating” as among the most common types of cheating they have experienced in their relationships.

Social Weather Stations (SWS)

said that in a

November 2025 survey

, 27% of adult Filipinos reported that they have personally witnessed or experienced some type of cheating in their relationship.

Of those who have witnessed or experienced cheating, 11% of them identified it as “physical cheating,” while another 11% identified it as “emotional cheating.”

There were also respondents who reported experiencing two or more types of cheating and were categorized under combined cheating, accounting for 8% of responses.

SWS defined physical cheating as engaging in intimate acts with or dating another person other than one’s partner.

Meanwhile, emotional cheating was described as sharing personal problems with or relying emotionally on someone other than one’s partner, or having romantic feelings for someone else even without a physical relationship.

Cybercheating: Having a social media account that the partner does not know, chatting with someone else behind their partner’s back, or engaging in romantic or sexual activities online with someone else.

Object Cheating: Giving too much attention to games, cellphone, hobbies, or other material things that one no longer has time for the partner.

Financial Cheating: Hiding purchases made for personal luxuries or concealing debts from one’s partner.

Micro Cheating: Using affectionate terms such as “baby,” “honey,” or “love” with someone other than one’s partner, hiding one’s own relationship status, or doing gestures that indicate romantic or emotional attention to someone else.

Combined Cheating: Engaging in more than one type of cheating

The SWS also said that 72% of Filipinos reported that they have not experienced cheating in a relationship.

The polling firm conducted the survey from Nov. 24 to 30, 2025, through face-to-face interviews with 1,200 adults aged 18 and above, with 300 respondents each from Metro Manila, Balance Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.

Applying census weights, 13% of respondents were from Metro Manila, 45% from Balance Luzon, 19% from the Visayas, and 23% from Mindanao. Half were from urban areas and half from rural areas, with male and female respondents equally represented.

The survey has a ±3% margin of sampling error for national percentages and ±6% for area-level estimates.