Why do people cheat?
According to Dr. Thornburg of the University of Kentucky School of Behavioral Science, there are many circumstantial reasons that can be reduced to only two core reasons:
1. The want for sex and attention, and the rush that comes with something secret. In other words, the thrill of the fling.
2. The need to fill an emotional void.
It’s easy to hate the person who has an affair for the first reason, but what about the ones who cheat because of the second? The ones who cheat because they are lonely? Because they are missing something with their partner that they’ve found in someone else?
One might argue that the person who cheats because of this second reason is less evil than the first. Perhaps one could even feel sorry for that person.
But still deserving of hate, right? Even if a little less readily.
After all, only terrible people have affairs. Cruel, selfish people who don’t care about anyone else’s feelings, only their own ego, regardless of the reason behind it. Only people who are more concerned about their own wants than the lives they could destroy would do such a thing.
It’s fine if that’s what you believe. I used to think so, too. Anyone who would do something so detrimental to their relationship with someone they claim to love can’t have it all together.
But what about the person who has an affair, because… well, just because? Surely that has to be the most despicable kind of person. At least those other un-loyal groups can justify what they’ve done with a reason. If there’s no justification, even a bad one, then what does that leave? A terrible, cruel selfish person.
Like I said, it’s fine if you think that. I completely get it, because if I didn’t have first hand experience with this type of thing I would think so, as well.
But now I know that it’s simply not true. If you keep reading, you will too.
