Snooping through a partner’s phone has ended relationships, study finds

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – If your partner, good friend, or colleague went into your phone without you knowing, would that relationship be over?

A new study finds for some it would be — but for many, that isn’t the case.

Researchers with UBC and the University of Lisbon say out of 46 people who had either snooped or been snooped on, fewer than half said the relationship eventually ended. Meantime, the majority said it didn’t.

When the relationship ended, it was either because of a feeling of betrayal or that the relationship wasn’t that strong, anyway.

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“Researchers from UBC and the University of Lisbon recruited 102 individuals and asked them to recall a past situation in which they accessed the phone of someone they know, or someone they know accessed theirs,” read the study. “Participants were asked to describe the events leading up to the incident, how the snooping was conducted and what happened to the relationship afterwards.”

When relationships survived, researchers found it was usually because the relationship was very solid and the person considered it important enough to overlook the offence.

Those who snooped the phones mentioned different reasons for doing so, but many cited jealousy or a desire to “control relationships with others” as the main reason.

Participants were all residents of Europe, Canada or the United States, and about 60 per cent were women.