I'll admit I have mixed feelings about cheating in terms of relationships and sexuality; however like the current top article mentions, we are biological creatures driven by nature to spread our genes through mating. While I don't feel the need to involve any personal relationship information or details in this article, I do have the following to say:

Human beings are of course biological creatures, we are flesh and blood and as such as are driven by carnal (and natural) urges to procreate. Somewhere down the line of social interaction and societal forming the majority of human beings decided that sexual activity should be limited to one partner. Some believe it should be one and only one for life, others believe sexual activity is an act of emotional love, and still others feel that engaging in sexual activity with someone other then your 'partner' is morally wrong and 'unnatural'.

Monogamy is a tricky subject and in fact new research indicates that NO biological being that we know of is truly driven to monogamy, humans included. Perhaps for social reasons we have evolved to view monogamy as the norm and promiscuity as abnormal but when it comes down to science we are driven to mate.

They have also found that dopamine levels rise during sex (duh), yet dopamine levels rise even more when sexual activity occurs for the first time between new partners (aka lust and sparks). This leads to the obvious conclusion that sex with multiple partners leads to higher levels of dopamine throughout and in theory a happier, more content creature. Is this nature's way of telling us that sex with multiple partners is right?

Like others I admit I question being with only one person at a time when these drives and urges are so strong. I also see how some couples allow sexual partners outside of the relationship, but this is a tricky situation.

My conclusion with this information is that 'cheating' is an inevitable consequence of biological drives which as one researcher put it 'cause dopamine spikes seen only in heroin addicts when shooting up'. If we ignore these drives then we may burst and go on a mating spree, if we indulge we may be called cheaters and liars and accused of not loving a person.

In some countries cheating results in death if caught, in other countries cheating is ignored and isn't considered a bad thing. Each person needs to find their comfort level and see what works for them. Is it really cheating if a good friend hooks up with another good friend (when one or both have a partner already) with the clear intentions of doing nothing more then having a good time void of emotional commitment? Or is it really cheating if two people in a relationship agree to allow the other to sexual partners outside the relationship? Perhaps we only need to shake up our steady relationships with fresh sexual ideas and new sexual sparks in bed to combat the urge to mate with many.

I have to say, I think the idea of 'cheating' is different in each and everyone's heads.

Learn more about this author, Maxwell Payne.
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