EXCLUSIVE – Florida residents might want to keep a close eye on their spouses this winter.
Controversial online dating service Ashley Madison, which caters to married people and uses the slogan "Life is short. Have an affair," examined where members reside to determine "hotspots across the world when it comes to adulterous behavior."
Ashley Madison chief strategy officer Paul Keable provided Fox News Digital with an exclusive look at the 20 cities across America where the most Ashley Madison accounts are based:
Keable explained that millions of single Americans look for companionship during the cold winter months, which is often dubbed "cuffing season." At Ashley Madison, married people looking to spice things up during the wintertime are seen as "uncuffing."
The rankings are based on where users reside, and Keable noted areas with large tourist populations, such as Las Vegas, would be even higher on the list if it went by where infidelity actually occurred. Keable said he’s always a little surprised by the results and changing behaviors of Americans, but feels many would be stunned at the types of people engaging in adulterous behavior.
"Infidelity is truly universal, and we see people from across the political spectrum joining our site. We have seen research outside of our company that shows that more right-leaning people tend to sign up [for] Ashley Madison. So, it shouldn't come as a surprise," Keable said, pointing out that Florida has three of the top five cities on the list.
He was, however, surprised that Colorado is also home to three of the cities with the most adulterous behavior. Keable believes most people would assume that liberal California cities such as Los Angeles and San Francisco would be prominent, but he claimed adulterous behavior is so normalized in the Golden State that many cheaters don’t even need Ashley Madison.
"Oftentimes people want to equate the California lifestyle with a lack of morals and ethics. You know, we see cheating scandals in Hollywood," he said.
"There's not as much moral outrage. There's not as much pushback against this behavior," Keable continued. "It's become very much normalized. And so, for some people in California, they don't require the discretion that Ashley Madison provides."
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Keable, who insists that people would be cheating whether or not Ashley Madison existed, is no stranger to criticism.
"My primary role is to talk to people about what's really happening in the world of infidelity, not to convince you to have an affair, but to help you understand why people really do versus why you think they might be having one," he said.
"Response to Ashley Madison is almost always going to be universally negative in the public domain because, simply put, that's what we're told by all the powers that be, our religion, our government. In fact, infidelity is the only sin that is in the Ten Commandments twice," Keable continued. "When people tell me, you know, we're an immoral company. What I say back to them is, ‘Listen, if we stopped working today, not a single affair would be stopped. If Ashley Madison didn't exist, adultery would still be as pervasive as it is around the world.’"
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Keable feels "more people would be caught" without Ashley Madison, and a rapidly growing set of subscribers reveals there is an appetite for the service.
"Our existence helps show people that monogamy doesn't work for a significant portion of the population. While it might work for you, and you might feel that we should not exist, you don't really understand the nature of what's happening behind the scenes," he said. "When people say that we shouldn't exist, that news outlets shouldn't cover our story, they're turning a blind eye to what's happening in their own backyard."
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Ashley Madison is no stranger to controversy or headlines. It was hacked in 2015 under prior leadership and had millions of its users' accounts exposed, leading to more attention to what one news site called its "morally dubious business model."
Fox News' Nikolas Lanum contributed to this report.
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