Research on romantic infidelity has typically approached it as a unitary construct, or at most by distinguishing sexual from emotional betrayal. Yet, lay conceptions of infidelity may reflect a broader range of moral and relational concerns. This cross-cultural study investigated how people conceptualize infidelity and how these definitions relate to self-reported infidelity, jealousy, and negative inducements. A total of 2741 adults currently in at least one romantic relationship completed an online survey. Participants first provided an open-ended definition of infidelity; responses were content-coded into dummy variables representing themes such as sex, intimacy, deception, agreement violations, and sexual health risk. These indicators were entered into a latent class analysis, which identified five definitional profiles: Sex and intimacy-centred (≈48%), Deception-focused (≈16%), Agreement-violation (≈22%), Health-risk definers (≈6%), and Nothing counts (≈9%). The classes differed in relational orientation, self-reported infidelity, anticipated jealousy, and use of negative inducements, suggesting that definitional diversity captures distinct normative and emotional orientations toward romantic relationships.

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• Psychology - Social Sciences