Summer holidays are a very popular time. Stress and daily obligations are replaced by more enjoyable moments. Our mood changes and people become more open, positive, and cheerful. But does being on vacation and enjoy our free time also includes skipping verbal contracts established with our partner and cheating on them?
It is said that holiday is the perfect time to enjoy: we reduce our inhibitions, we have no obligations and labour worries, we’re surrounded by endless sunsets, and there’s fun all the time. Altogether, this creates a unique setting in which to enjoy memorable moments, with old friends or new ones. The euphoria and freedom we experience during the holidays season makes us feel different things, we behave as we wouldn’t normally do and we get carried away by circumstances. We fall into excesses; repressed instincts come out and are released. During the holidays we experience a state of exception that makes us perceive infidelity in a different way. Many of us believe that relations in the summer resort, due to its brevity, are not a full-blown infidelity, so during this time we feel free to do everything we wouldn’t do during the rest of the year, including infidelity.
So does cheating becomes a gift, a reward for the hard year of work? Or a rebellion and a defence against loneliness? Everyone will have their motivations, whether on vacation or during any time of the year. What’s for sure is that on summer these motivations increase, no matter if we go to a paradise beach on our own or we stay in one of the apartments in Florence with a group of friends.
According to a survey conducted in Spain, over 60% of the Spanish people believe that in the summer it is easier to commit infidelity. Actually, 23% of men admitted to have cheated on their partners in the summer, while only 12.5% of women admitted to the same. On the other hand, 28% of men and 15% of women confessed that although they haven’t cheated on their partners, they have thought about it sometimes. One of the biggest “excuses” of the respondents is summer trips, in which they meet new people and during which they feel more likely to have fun with no strings attached.
During the summer we feel sexier, prettier and more excited. But there is a biological reason to increase the chances to cheat on our partners too: according to experts, during this period our bodies produce more melatonin, a hormone responsible for the vitality, which puts us in a better mood and increases our eroticism. This combination of circumstances and the explosion of emotions make both sentimental and physical contact easier, which results, in many cases, in an intimate relationship.
Anyway, after a few days of debauchery, either in Costa Rica or in Florence apartments, we have to come back home. But many of these infidelities end up affecting our relationships due to the beautiful memories, sometimes idealized, of the summer love. Some people are surprised that, when they have sex while travelling with people they just met and they won’t see again, they ‘work’ sexually speaking better than when they do it with people in their hometown. The lack of fear of commitment and reputation as a lover are factors that positively influence the good course of this type of sex. The spontaneity, something hard to find in many relationships, acts as the best aphrodisiac. So while some people take up again the routine without problems, others are slow to regain stability, which means that many couples break right after the holiday period.
But, what can I say; I’m taking the risk, as I like to think that what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.
