Why Do People Cheat
Well, why shouldn't they' Because it's wrong. But is it' Cheating isin many ways in the eye of the beholder, for most of what passes ascheating is not seen as such by the cheater, as Shermer (2004) argues. Mostof us believe (and this is not simply a matter of self deception) that weare in fact doing the right thing most of the time. This paper examines thepsychology behind cheating, looking especially at those instances in whichthe person whom others believe to be or accuse of cheating see themselves The question of why people cheat depends in large measure on whatarena of human action we are talking about. If we are talking about sex -and "cheating" is probably applied to sexual behavior and infidelity morethan to any other arena - it has a great deal to do with human fragility.And especially male psychological fragility. And the rate at which mencheat on their partners (first estimated in the Kinsey report and verifiedsince) suggest that there are indeed a large number of fragile men out To whatever degree, men
We understand that other people andeven probably we ourselves are gaming the system - but what else shouldpeons do' There is a sense in the range of activities called cheating thatall the little people are banding together(http://www. uk/relationships/couple/cheat/articles/0, ,149_158061,00. We have a belief that we should all play by the rules, and yetat the same time we recognize that playing by the rules is in large measurea mug's game. And, if it's any consolation, cheating is probably evolutionarilyhard-wired into us (http://www. Those numbers have remained much the same in subsequent studies (http://www. htm): All of our fellowprimates do it too. This leads to our somewhat ambivalent attitude towards allthose activities that we label as cheating. And here you are probably saying to yourself - "Wait a minute -that's cheating! The rest of us have to play by the rules.
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