More than a third of women think it is okay to snoop on their partner’s texts or emails to see if they are cheating, a survey has found.
Some 37 per cent of females admitted that they would happily trawl through many electronic communication methods to see if their husband or boyfriend was playing away.
Surprisingly the figure is higher than that for men – just 29 per cent of males said such behavior was acceptable.
The study shows that while women may be the fairer sex, they are also the most suspicious and think that surveillance is the only way to have peace of mind.
Their snooping did not stop at emails or texts as women felt justified going through their partner’s contact lists on phones as well.
Facebook profiles too were apparently not out of bounds for a woman on the hunt for what the researchers termed ‘bad behavior’.
The study also found that younger people were more paranoid when it came to snooping with 36 per cent of those aged 18 to 34 saying it was okay. For those aged 55 the figure was just 26 per cent.
Relationships expert Jean Hannah Edelstein said: ‘If you are looking at your partner’s emails and text messages then there might be wider trust issues in your relationship.
‘It might be time to have a conversation about what you really want from each other.’
A previous study found that one in 10 British men admitted to logging on to their partner’s social networking site to snoop on them.
Those who did so admitted to finding out things they did not want to, such as their partners gossiping about them with their friends.
The latest research was carried out by US dating website OurTime, which surveyed 2,000 adults.
