Cheaters Don’t Stop After The First Time For Alarming Reason, Science Says

[Tennis]

Once a cheater, always a cheater.

It’s a warning that you should be wary of a serial cheater — that people who aren’t loyal to a partner will cheat again.

Whether you believe it’s true or not, a new study linking dishonesty and the brain may explain why serial cheaters continue to commit infidelity.

The paper, titled “The brain adapts to dishonesty,” claims each time a person lies, they feel less guilty about doing so.

It’s all because of the amygdala, a region of the brain that provides a negative response when humans lie — but every time we are dishonest, the response weakens.

The study states,

We speculate that the blunted response to repeated acts of dishonesty may reflect a reduction in the emotional response to these decisions or to their affective assessment and saliency.

Elite Daily spoke to Neil Garrett, a co-author of the paper and researcher at Princeton Neuroscience Institute.

He said the findings would need to be tested specifically on relationships to determine whether it applies to infidelity, but that a “similar mechanism could apply.”

He told Elite Daily,

The idea would be the first time we commit adultery we feel bad about it. But the next time we feel less bad and so on, with the result that we can commit adultery to a greater extent.

Garrett added,

What our study and others suggest is a powerful factor that prevents us from cheating is our emotional reaction to it, how bad we feel essentially, and the process of adaptation reduces this reaction, thereby allowing us to cheat more.

With serial cheaters, it could be the case that they initially felt bad about cheating, but have cheated so much they’ve adapted to their ways and simply don’t feel bad about cheating any more.

Another possibility is that they never felt bad about cheating to begin with, so they didn’t need adaptation to occur, they were comfortable with it from the get-go.

Essentially, those little white lies — regardless of what they’re about, and whether you tell them to your parents, boss or friends — grow into more significant lies because we can deal with them better.

Or, of course, you’re a raging sociopath with an inability to feel guilt about hurting someone you care about.

Garrett also said the study would need to be modified to assess the impact of cheating on the amygdala, adding,

I think one of the key differences would be that cheating in relationships often takes place over shorter timescales than in my study.

So whether adaptation takes place at slower time scales and whether it generalizes to other types of behavior we find aversive like adultery, violence, etc are the key two things we’d need to test to start to answer this.

The authors behind the study came to their conclusion after an experiment that tested participants’ capacity to lie.

People were shown a jar filled with coins and asked to help a partner, who was only given a blurry image, guess how many were in the jar.

But when they were told they would receive a financial reward if their partner overestimated the amount of money in the jar, they were more likely to lie — prompting a response from the amygdala.

http://elitedaily.com/news/science-s...-stop/1841409/

This is so true! I've noticed this. If they lie then it's a major red flag. Run for the hills.
Have you caught your wife/husband lying to you? If so how did you handle it?

[Jonnusthegreat]

I guess if you believe multiple partners isn't good then yes, you probably shouldn't be with a partner that believes that.

[Evil Midnight Bomber]

He said the findings would need to be tested specifically on relationships to determine whether it applies to infidelity, but that a “similar mechanism could apply.”

That seems to be the most important part of this study...that it wasn't a study on cheating and this is just a theoretical application.

[Tennis]

That seems to be the most important part of this study...that it wasn't a study on cheating and this is just a theoretical application.

This is how science usually works.

[Evil Midnight Bomber]

This is how science usually works.

No, it really isn't. That's how religion works. Science works by, as the man himself said, testing theories.

[Auxora]

I don't think it's really even as complex as the article makes it. It's just a matter of morals/values that a person has, along with the amount of respect they have for the person they are cheating on. If they have poor values that justify cheating without guilt, and/or they don't have respect for their partner...it's a pretty good chance that a cheater will do it again. The reasons that caused the cheating to happen didn't change, and a person's morals rarely change, so it makes sense to figure it will repeat. Respect is one thing that can change but it takes a while and doesn't change easily.

[Belize]

So, Tennis, who cheated on you.

Just uh, curious.

[Kokolums]

http://elitedaily.com/news/science-s...-stop/1841409/

This is so true! I've noticed this. If they lie then it's a major red flag. Run for the hills.
Have you caught your wife/husband lying to you? If so how did you handle it?

Nonsense! Married couples lie to each other on average 10 times per day. To a stranger is almost constant lying. Humans lie.

[Halyon]

And this is surprising how?

[Tennis]

Nonsense! Married couples lie to each other on average 10 times per day. To a stranger is almost constant lying. Humans lie.

Maybe the married couples that end up getting divorced. That would certainly make sense.

[Lady Dragonheart]

This is common knowledge, or at least it used to be. There's a saying, "Once a cheater, always a cheater." However, it covers all forms of dishonesty, as in order to keep up lies, you have to get better at masking and creating and maintaining more lies to keep up the facade making you more adept at being dishonest as well as more prone to be as such.

[Garnier Fructis]

I've about had it with these 'Science says' articles where they take a piece of research and then stretch to apply it to things that it wasn't about.

[Super Kami Dende]

You are meaning to tell me pieces of shit are always pieces of shit? SUCH A REVELATION!

I immediately disregard any prospective partner if I find out they have at one time or another cheated. Once a whore always a whore.

[breadisfunny]

http://elitedaily.com/news/science-s...-stop/1841409/

This is so true! I've noticed this. If they lie then it's a major red flag. Run for the hills.
Have you caught your wife/husband lying to you? If so how did you handle it?

alleria has never lied to me. ever.

[Ghostpanther]

I don't think it's really even as complex as the article makes it. It's just a matter of morals/values that a person has, along with the amount of respect they have for the person they are cheating on. If they have poor values that justify cheating without guilt, and/or they don't have respect for their partner...it's a pretty good chance that a cheater will do it again. The reasons that caused the cheating to happen didn't change, and a person's morals rarely change, so it makes sense to figure it will repeat. Respect is one thing that can change but it takes a while and doesn't change easily.

I agree with this. Well said Tumaras.