Are YOU 'micro-cheating'? Social media is tearing couples apart as scientist warns flirty gestures on apps can ruin marriages


  • Micro-cheating is the grey area between friendliness and infidelity online
  • Psychologist Martin Graff says the click of a mouse button can put you at risk
  • Examples include sending heart emojis, liking posts and writing comments
  • More serious acts may involve secrecy or covert communications with others
Sending the wrong emoji or liking a post on social media could be enough to ruin your relationship, a leading psychologist has warned.
Showing too much interest in the digital lives of someone other than your partner can be considered acts of infidelity, dubbed micro-cheating.
While the actions themselves may seem relatively trivial, they can have the same emotional impact as sleeping with someone else, according to one expert.
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Sending the wrong emoji could be enough to ruin your relationship, a leading psychologist warns. Showing too much interest in the digital lives of someone other than your partner can be considered acts of infidelity, dubbed micro-cheating (stock image)
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Sending the wrong emoji could be enough to ruin your relationship, a leading psychologist warns. Showing too much interest in the digital lives of someone other than your partner can be considered acts of infidelity, dubbed micro-cheating (stock image)

FIVE WAYS YOU MIGHT BE MICRO-CHEATING 

Adding a former partner on social media apps like Snapchat or following them on Facebook and Instagram.
Using too many emojis with romantic connotation, like hearts and flowers, in online communications.
Saving the contact details of a friend of the opposite sex under a false name. 
Sending complimentary messages, either publicly or privately, to someone of the opposite sex online. 
Tagging a member of the opposite sex in a post as part of an inside joke.
Dr Martin Graff, a psychologist from the University of South Wales, says that the click of a mouse button can be enough to put you at risk of micro-cheating. 
The term has risen in prominence over recent years as a way of describing the grey area between friendly interaction and infidelity, particularly in the online world.
Examples of micro-cheating may include checking the social media accounts of a former lover or saving the contact details of a friend of the opposite sex under a false name.
Messaging someone without your partner’s knowledge or adding a previous partner on Snapchat could also be considered acts of micro-cheating. 
It might even be something as seemingly innocent as sending a heart emoji to someone. 
Speaking to the TELEGRAPH Dr Graff, who is an associate fellow of the British Psychological Society, said: 'In terms of the history of human communication and relationships this is all brand new. 
'Social media interactions have an inherent ambiguity. Is sending a heart in a Facebook message being unfaithful? Or is it micro-cheating? 
'It can be something as simple as repeatedly "liking" someone’s posts on Instagram or commenting on someone’s Facebook. 
'Secrecy or covert communications are often, but not always, a sign of micro-cheating.'
Interest around micro-cheating was renewed recently when Australian psychologist Melanie Schilling spoke to MailOnline about the types of behaviour that the concept describes.

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