As yet, some Americans may not have figured out what they think of relationships that are "not appropriate," as President Clinton put it the other night. But most people know what "infidelity" means and what they think about that. According to a TIME/CNN poll of Americans' sexual attitudes conducted this summer, 86% of respondents believe that adultery when committed by men is "morally wrong." A statistically indistinguishable 85% of Americans also feel that adultery is morally wrong for women. The significant increase in these numbers since TIME conducted a similar survey in 1977--in the so-called jiggle-show era only 76% of Americans thought infidelity was morally wrong--should calm those who fear the recent White House scandals have weakened the nation's virtue.
But what may seem clear cut in the abstract can become more complicated in real life. For instance, what exactly is infidelity? This is a question that in slightly different form--How does one define "sexual relations"?--continues to dog the President. According to the TIME/CNN poll, 95% of Americans, which is about as unanimous as we ever get, agree that "having sex with a prostitute" counts. On the other end of the survey's scale is "casually flirting with someone else," considered adulterous by a (hard to live with?) minority of 35%. Somewhere in the middle are "having a sexually explicit conversation with someone on the phone" (69% define that as cheating), "having a sexually explicit conversation on the Internet" (67%) and "holding hands with someone else" (44%). Perhaps regrettably, the survey's list of offensive conduct did not include "having some sort of as yet undisclosed physical contact with a person admittedly less than half one's age."
Of course, a nation's opinions about adultery may be affected by its familiarity with the practice. America is not yet France, but neither is it Monogamydonia nor Nosleazysexistan. According to the 1994 University of Chicago study titled The Social Organization of Sexuality, which is generally considered the most accurate report on Americans' sexual practices to date (this is the report that famously announced that Americans are having less sex and with fewer partners than our popular culture would have us believe), as many as a quarter of married men may have been unfaithful. This number dovetails intriguingly with the TIME/CNN poll, which found that 23% of married men agree with the statement that "infidelity is an unavoidable part of married life today."
Is this statistical confluence a mere coincidence, a reflection of hard-won marital wisdom or an indication of the sorts of rationalizations relied on by husbands who can't deflect blame onto a "politically inspired lawsuit" or an investigation that has "gone on too long"? The matter awaits further study. The numbers for women are less synchronous: while upwards of 15% of wives may have been unfaithful, according to the Chicago study, 22% agreed with the statement in the TIME/CNN poll that infidelity is unavoidable. Whether this is a function of charity, resignation or some other phenomenon also awaits further analysis.