Zoosk Examines International Dating Habits

What happens when you ask over 12,500 singles in 8 countries about their perspectives on monogamy, infidelity, and forgiveness?

Zoosk's latest survey happens.

Participants from the United States, UK, Italy, Germany, France, Denmark, Australia, and Sweden were polled by the social dating site to uncover the similarities and disparities in dating habits around the world. Findings include:

• Americans are least forgiving of politicians who cheat on their partners. 53% of singles in the US said that learning that a politician had cheated on their partner would influence their vote. Singles in other countries, however, are less interested in the private lives of their politicians. In the 7 other countries surveyed, the majority of singles reported that learning that a political candidate was a cheater would not influence their vote.
• Americans might not be as obsessed with celebrity culture as we think. Though creating a list of celebrities partners have a free pass to get involved with is a long-standing tradition in monogamous couples, a massive 80% of American singles said that they would not cheat on their partner if they had the opportunity to have a one-night stand with a celebrity. Italian singles, on the other hand, were most likely (34%) to step out on their partners if it meant spending a night with a celebrity crush.
• Tiger Woods' philandering has earned him the top spot on the "Worst Offenders" list across the globe. In France and Italy, Silvio Berlusconi was ranked the #1 worst cheater, with Tiger Woods coming in a close second, but in the 6 other countries polled Tiger Woods topped the list of notorious womanizers.
• Italians are most likely to venture into the world of nonmonogamy. 20% of Italian singles said that they prefer open relationships to monogamous relationships, compared to 15% of German singles, 11% of French singles, 9% of singles in Australia, 8% of singles in Denmark, 7% of American singles, and 6% of Swedish and British singles.
• Forgiveness is hard to find in any country. On average, 28% of singles in the countries polled said that they could forgive a partner for cheating, while 72% said that they could not. Danish singles appear to be the least forgiving (23%), and the most forgiving singles are found in Germany (35%).
• Though forgiving a cheating partner is a challenge, many singles believe that philanderers can be reformed. The majority of singles in 5 countries - the US, Sweden, France, Denmark, and Germany - said that they believe a cheater can return to monogamy after an affair. Singles in Italy, the UK, and Australia are firm believers that "once a cheater, always a cheater."

"The Zoosk survey found a level of agreement across cultures about the desire to be in a monogamous relationship or the difficulty of forgiving a partner for cheating," says Alex Mehr, co-founder and co-CEO of Zoosk. "It is particularly fascinating to us to see which issues singles around the world do not see eye to eye on."

For more information about this dating service, please read our review of Zoosk.com.