Infidelity can wreak undesirable havoc on a relationship leading to marital divorce or pre-marital break-ups – triggering anger, anxiety, violence, and depression.
Below are the few top motives behind cheating:
- Falling out of love – Sometimes, a deficit in the existing relationship can instigate people to have an affair.
- Feeling neglected or less prioritized – Similar to the feeling of lack of love and attention, some people engage in infidelity due to their partner’s lack of attention—more women as compared to men recognized this one as the top motive for cheating.
- Situational forces – Not all instances of cheating are actually premeditated or driven by dissatisfaction with a current relationship. Sometimes, situations just turn to be the culprit. More men compared to women fall in this trap.
- To boost self-esteem or satisfy ego – this reason seems counterintuitive, given that cheating tends to end with significant personal consequences as well, but for some people, the act of having an affair can also boost their own ego and self-esteem.
- Out of frustration or anger or to prove the inferiority of the partner – This is not a very common reason, but anger plays a role in the spoiling relationships. Cheating in such cases was witnessed as a way to punish a partner or take revenge to hurt them.
- Not feeling committed – the lack of love and commitment to a current romantic partner result in the rise of relationship dissatisfaction, followed by cheating.
- Sexual drive – many people are driven to have an affair because of their sexual drive, which remains unfulfilled as they are dissatisfied. Maybe in their established relationship, they aren’t engaging in the frequency of sex, the style of sex, or specific sexual behaviors that they fantasize about. This leads to cheating, as well.
It’s also possible that there are other motivations beyond these pointers as well. But, definitely, these cover all the major ones. No matter what, nothing can actually justify the act of cheating in any relationship – because the pain one feels on finding cheating text messages on partner’s phone is beyond imagination.
