Thinking Your Partner Might Be Cheating? Experts Warn Against Using ‘Loyalty Testers’ 

If you haven’t heard of loyalty testers, consider yourself lucky. People hire loyalty testers, also known as professional flirters, to test whether their partner would cheat. This is true, we swear! We’re not making this up! Apparently, loyalty testers have been around for a while, as their services are unfortunately in high demand.  But before you dive into the deep end of “I need to know if my partner is loyal to me!” and start planning your own trap, let’s talk about the experts' take on this testing thing, which really shouldn't be a thing at all. If you feel the need to test your partner’s loyalty, it’s either because you have trust issues, or your partner is giving you reasons to doubt. Spoiler alert: It’s not exactly the relationship hack you think it is.  So, What are Loyalty Testers?  You might be thinking, “What is a loyalty tester, and where can I hire one?” (Please don't look for one. But if you're considering becoming one, the pay is reportedly good, with some loyalty testers earning over $100 for a single test.) Basically, loyalty testers check whether your partner will cheat on you by sending flirty texts or setting up a fake meetup to see if they’ll bite. You know, just like in the movies, when someone has trust issues and, instead of talking it out with their partner like a mature adult, they set up an entrapment.  Who are These Testers?  In an interview with Sky News, Savanna Harrison shared her experience being a loyalty tester and how she ended up being one. She said she wanted to help other women after being cheated on. According to her, she’s read comments about how “messed up it is” but that she doesn’t feel bad about what she’s doing, rationalizing, “If you can’t be loyal, then you shouldn’t be in that relationship.”  However, if it’s not already obvious that this is a questionable idea that will undoubtedly hurt your partner, Amy Chan, a dating coach and author of Breakup Bootcamp: The Science of Rewiring Your Heart, told USA Today that the tests are “essentially relationship sabotage disguised as peace of mind.” Chan reiterated that if you approach someone to test your partner’s loyalty, you are already doing so because of doubt and that this approach does not “build security,” but rather “erodes it.” She finds it ironic that those who want to check their partner’s “honesty” are doing so in a “dishonest” manner.