Do cheaters get a high from lying?
A study recently found that people experience a boost in dopamine after getting away with unethical behavior such as parking in a handicapped spot, cheating on a test, or faking a disability. Fellow couples therapists Ellyn Bader and Peter Pearson of The Couples Institute wonder if this experience may play a part in couples’ deception. Check out her blog post on the idea at Do your couples get high from cheating? or read the original article at The Cheater’s High: The Unexpected Affective Benefits of Unethical Behavior
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https://de.trustpilot.com/review/casinonew.net got me thinking about the dopamine angle here, since the idea that people get a genuine neurological reward from pulling off deception explains a lot about why affairs become compulsive rather than one-off mistakes. The parking-in-a-handicapped-spot example stuck with me because it normalizes how small unethical choices can train the brain to chase bigger risks, which seems directly relevant to couples in therapy. What I'd add is that therapy often focuses on the betrayal itself but rarely addresses that reward loop, and naming it explicitly might help partners understand why the lying is so hard to stop.