Do you think "cheating" is a biological urge?

According to a show on the Discovery Channel it apparently is. I mean... depending on the bond with their wife, some men will go sleeping around (being a "playah" or resorting to rape to spread his genes). But I find that women are more... ugh... can't find the word for it, but it goes like this.

A woman will marry a man who she knows will love and nurture her children and will sleep with him a lot. But there could be a few who will go "gene shopping" behind their husband's back, getting themselves pregnant with men she thinks will provide the best genes for her children. And her husband would be clueless about this if she played her cards right so he thinks the children she's bearing are his...

I guess that's how I see it after seeing that one Discovery Channel show where that couple's sixth child ended up having a genetic disease that activates when both parents pass on the defective gene. Except that only the woman was a carrier of that gene and her husband wasn't. All the children were tested genetically and it was found that the only daughter in the family was the husband's child. The rest of the children (all boys) had different fathers. I can only imagine the shock on the husband's face when this came to light...

Definitely not. It depends on the situation at hand. If a person really loves their significant other they would not cheat on them. A person only cheats because of insecurities or an unsatisfactory relationship. "Gene shopping" really pisses me off. If you don't think your current partner has the type of genes your child should have then break up with him and find someone who does instead of sleeping around. Honestly...

True that it's our animal nature to be fruitful and multiply, but the act of cheating isn't the same thing. Monogamy is a false ideal that was pushed apond by moral and religious standards via village and town demographic.. aka you shouldn't fuck every woman in the village because then your children will fuck the other creating a inbreed people. The feeling and wanting is perfectly natural as the female intuition to find the perfect male mating stock is biological natural.( women can tell in the first 5 mins if they want to fuck you) of course that only a deep primaeval emotion and not fact... because that only work on sex and not a relationship.

There is no definite answer. Some people are perfectly happy in a monogamous relationship, others need the attention of multiple partners...even if it means cheating.

I've tried out many different relationship models. With the right girl, I can be happy with monogamy.

The OP was referring to the urge of cheating as a biological urge. The topic is about wondering if there is a form of survival instinct associated to cheating, either to allow more children to be born, or stronger children to be borne.

If that were the case, then it would not be related to insecurities or unsatisfactory relationships. Survival instincts are really only about survival of the species, emotions don't get into account.


That being said, I think this is a very complex question, and my personal feeling would be that we are far from the answer. We humans live in societies based on monogamy, and our relationships are based on feelings and love. There is a possibility that those feelings could be in opposition to our animal instincts, but they could very well be working in accordance with them. Humans relationships are very complex after all.

There is no biological urge to cheat. There are biological urges that make people attractive to us, that is true.

But there is none that make you cheat. That's only a poor excuse douches use to justify their behavior.

Here's what I think. It is not a biological urge to cheat, but to find the right mate. But at the end of the day it's our emotions and morals that decide whether we should find a new mate or not.

There are very few animals that are monogamous. it's hard to say if people are or aren't by nature since so many lack any kind of self control to begin with.

I've been thinking about this since I first posted. I think the attraction part is subconcious, and gene shopping is also done at the subconcious level. We look at potential mates all the time without realizing it and some of us see traits we want to see in our next generation. However, there seems to be little to no biological driving force in us to go through and attempt to give our genes to (in the case of men) or receive genes from (in the case of women) that potential partner. My guess is that in Humans we have that consious choice whether to go through with the action or not while animals will be driven by instinct to do so.

God gave men brains bigger than dogs so they wouldn't hump women's legs at cocktail parties.

Men are prone to being oversexed and thinking constantly about sex. In morally questionable situations this leads to cheating.

Lust makes you do stupid things regardless of sex, but there is no cheating gene.

At least according to the study this article refers to. And it's only one in a sea of similar articles. With a minute of google surfing I found at least two speculated applicants. (variant of DRD4 and AVPR1A)

Yeah, it seems that cheating and genes are connected. I can't see why it's such a shock, or even something to wonder about. People are products of their genetic structure and environment, and if the model for cheating isn't learned (even though that might be the case for some) where else would it come from?

That doesn't necessarily mean cheating can be justified by genes. Saying that sounds to me as ridiculous as genes and cheating being unrelated. At the most I would say that while certain genes might raise the probability of cheating, they don't order anyone to do so.

Cheating is dishonesty.

Hackers.
Also
Of all the things I've lost, I miss my mind the most. -Ozzy Osbourne

It's not so much that "cheating" is a biological urge, but wanting to fuck anything that's alive and moves.

Omg I always thought that but ppl alway sed that I was ignorant or w.e w.e. I came up with. A theory 1 day (in the shower where I do my best thinking hahaha) I always thought that since other mammals and animals or w.e mate with others all the time and stuff (can't really explain it well) then humans should naturally have that urge in the back of their head like 1 of their natural instincts that we try to ignore. I wish I cud explain it better but shower time memories fade so quickly. V.V

no, when you truly love a person i you would never cheat on them or want them to cheat on you

I cant help but to notice that you're kinda focused on men in this thread, are you trying to say that women are any better regarding sexual behaviour or lust? From my personal expirience women cheating these days are starting to overpower men... For the rest I agree, sexual attraction is normal, I mean nobody can blame me if I see a women on the street that is beautiful in my opinion and if I have one dirty thought, I'm sure my ex-girlfriends have thought the same when they saw a man that was attractive. Now after saying this, there is no urge to cheat, not mating with every memeber of the opposite sex that I find good looking is one of the things that distinguishes me from an animal. Not to act on instinct but by thinking, logic, or simply put brain power is what makes us human and intellectually superior to others, if I were to hump every person I would be nothing else but an animal.(by animals I mean everything besides humans, so somebody doesn't try to be a smart-ass saying that we are also animals like I dont know that already)

From an evolutionary standpoint I am almost certain it is. The more sex with different partners the more offspring, resulting in a less extinct humanity.

People can be happy with one partner, but all the self control they have over the subject of "not cheating" is artificially created by are urban environment and not from what "the human animal" would do.

Try to consider that without that self-control people would still be hunting animals with weapons made out of rocks and collect edible things from the ground. The fact that humans can control what they do is what makes them special, its true that having 1 partner was forced upon us by society, but it would be animalistic to fuck just to reproduce, also overproduction is a problem (china for example). I think it takes a lot of will-power, guts and love to just be with one person, and I agree that not everyone is able to do it, but to cheat? Since we dont act on instinct anymore there is no need to and it also shows that you have respect for the other person and above all self-respect.

I think cheating is an urge, but like all urges it can be resisted.