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"He cheated... on her?!"

A fascinating photoset, but why do we imagine that if only one is beautiful enough -- or sufficiently more beautiful than the other -- the other won't cheat? I can think of at least 5 reasons why the opposite would be true:

1. The terribly beautiful partner's beauty may have had a bad effect on her (or his) personality, since people lavish attention on a beautiful person without expecting reciprocal warmth, so the less beautiful one strays into the arms of someone kinder, more interesting, or more sexually energetic.

2. The less beautiful one may feel less beautiful and inferior, undeserving of the prize, and need to go elsewhere to feel more comfortable and less pressured.

3. A person who marries a terribly beautiful person has demonstrated his attraction to terribly beautiful individuals, so why wouldn't he (or she) feel captivated by other beautiful women? That Billy Bob Thorton had Laura Dern didn't keep him from seeing and loving Angelina Jolie.

4. A less-good-looking person who has won admiration for his (or her) ability to stand next to someone very beautiful may want his ego stroked a second (or third) time by getting another beautiful person to do the same. The first one might seem like a fluke, but if he can get another, it will prove there is something truly amazing about him.

5. A person who marries someone very beautiful may be a very shallow person, attracted to surfaces and thus less likely to form the kind of bond to the soul of another that will be needed to keep the couple together when the novelty and heat of passion wear out, as they almost surely will.

Full post as published by Althouse on September 07, 2008 (boomark / email).