As always, the answer is yes and no. If you ask most men, they would say that a physical affair is worse than an emotional one. There’s a definitive act they visualize that may play on repeat in their heads. When asked about this, Rick Reynolds, Founder of Affair Recovery put it this way. “In the midst of my affair, I believed it to be the physical aspect of the affair [that was worse], but, in retrospect, my opinion has changed. Long before the physical began, the emotional affair thrived. After the affair ended, it wasn’t the sexual component of our relationship that was last to fade, rather the loss of the friendship seemed the greatest loss.” Many of my male coaching clients say they think sexual affairs are worse than emotional ones, while female clients have said they think emotional affairs are worse. In a 2012 study, C.J. Carpenter found, “Contradictory to the typical evolutionary/biological model used to measure sexual motivations in men & women, there was almost no difference in the type of infidelity that men and women found distressing. Instead, they were more concerned with the extent that their partner’s behavior threatened their relationship.”