Politicians' personal lives used to be fairly private, but nowadays, nothing is, and the public is left trying to make sense of all the marital infidelity revealed in recent years, the latest being the case of South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford.
In just the past three years, there's Sanford's affair with a woman in Argentina; Nevada Sen. John Ensign's affair with a former aide who herself was married to former aide; former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer's involvement with a prostitute; former New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey's affair with a gay lover; and former Florida Rep. Mark Foley's sexually explicit emails to male Congressional pages.
The acts of impropriety, admitted or only suspected, run counter to many politicians' hard-line career commitments to fighting the decay of family values or other moral or social values.
The obvious question on many minds: What were these dudes thinking? The short answer, researchers say: Power and corruption go together.
While no outsider can read a man's mind, psychologists have suggested several reasons for politicians' seeming hypocrisy, including a feeling of invincibility and "no one can touch me" attitude. Plus, people in high positions have more opportunities to step out of line. However, humans inherently hold leaders to higher standards and elect those individuals whom they think can resist great temptations, experts say.
Power corrupts
Power has been and will forever be entangled with corruption for various reasons, said Daniel Kruger, a social and evolutionary psychologist at the University of Michigan's School of Public Health.
"Leaders have so much power and influence, there are so many more opportunities for corruption, and to exploit the system at the expense of the people," Kruger said. With more opportunities for lying-cheating-stealing behaviors, political leaders must be on their toes double-time.
Perhaps that's why power figures and sexual improprieties sometimes seem linked in the public mind. For instance, former Idaho Sen. Larry Craig was arrested in 2007 for lewd conduct in an airport men’s room. Also that year, Sen. David Vitter was linked with prostitutes when his telephone number showed up on phone records of "D.C. Madam," an alleged prostitution service. This list goes on to include Rep. Barney Frank, who in 1989 admitted a relationship with a male prostitute, according to news reports.
"[People] hold leaders to higher moral standards than they would their fellow women and men," Kruger told LiveScience. "They want leaders who are ideally beyond reproach, someone who is a good and moral person and will do the right thing even when bestowed with this tremendous power."
Mr. Invincible
Someone like Sanford would likely be blown away that he or she was caught in an allegedly criminal or immoral act, because with so much professional success, failure is the last thing on his or her mind, another expert says.
"I think what's more at play here is just the notion of invincibility," said Scott Reynolds, assistant professor of business ethics at the University of Washington in Seattle, "that sometimes when things go well for us and just again and again and again, we're successful, we start to believe that nothing can go wrong."
Even still, the false sense of invincibility can induce risk-taking behaviors that have colossal consequences. "We're willing to take more risks; we're willing to do more behaviors that are risky and we end up doing some things that aren’t very smart," Reynolds said of the idea that success can breed poor decisions.
Immediacy and repetition also play roles, Kruger said.
"People take risks often times because they're valuing the immediate rewards rather than something down the line," he said, adding that after a while, one's immoral behavior can become routine and we stop thinking about it consciously.
Moral hypocrisy
Leader or not, do-gooders may be more smoke-and-mirrors than the real McCoy.
Research has shown people do the bare minimum in many respects, and so with morality, the appearance of taking the right action could be just as beneficial as actually taking that action.
"We've found far more evidence for moral hypocrisy than we have for moral integrity, at least among the samples of university students that we've looked at," said C. Daniel Batson, professor of social psychology at the University of Kansas, who studies the nature of moral motivation and moral hypocrisy. He noted he thinks his results apply to adults as well, including politicians and businessmen.
And since public opinion can make or break an elected politician, making moral charades can feel like a must, Batson noted in a telephone interview.
"Politicians are asking for the public trust and generally one would trust someone only if they thought they had, if not one’s own best interest, at least the interest of the community at heart," Batson said.
Invulnerable to consequences?
One possible explanation, said Stanley Renshon, a political psychologist at City University of New York: "Narcissism is an occupational hazard for political leaders. You have to have an outsized ambition and an outsized ego to run for office."
Or, perhaps, think you can stray from your marriage without consequence."I think too often, and for me in the political process, you begin to think of yourself as master of your own universe and your own set of ethical structures, your own sense of decision-making," McGreevey, who resigned amid a scandal over his admission of a homosexual affair, said Thursday on NBC's "Today" show.
To be sure, politicians don't necessarily have different reasons for cheating than non-politicians, and they don't necessarily cheat more often.
The difference: "They live their lives more in a fishbowl, and that has responsibilities and costs with it," Renshon said, adding that an adulterous politician doesn't just betray his family's trust, he also betrays the public's trust.
Indeed, when politicians get caught, they do so in extraordinary fashion and their actions raise questions about their judgment, character and integrity as a leader.
If they can lie to their loved ones, who is to say they won't lie to everyone else? If they can't stay faithful to their marriage vows, who is to say they'll stay faithful to their oaths of office? And if they have secrets in their private lives, who is to say they don't have secrets in their public lives?
"It does matter in public perceptions," said Stephen Wayne, a Georgetown University government professor who has studied political psychology. When it comes to the highest positions in politics, he said, "we want to figure out who acts as a model for others."
Presidents, senators, congressmen and governors who have extramarital affairs flunk that test.
On some level, it's easy to see why they cheat.
Adrenaline rush
Fred Greenstein, a Princeton University professor emeritus of politics, suggested adrenaline as the common denominator, saying, "For some individuals, the excitement of illicit sexual activity might feed the same desire" as "the excitement of politics."Political life — with its long hours, frequent travel and endless stream of new acquaintances — also can be a strain on even rock-solid marriages. At times, the lifestyle almost seems to invite unfaithfulness.
"There's lots of temptation," Greenstein added.
There's also a clue in the kind of people drawn to politics.
These are men who love themselves deeply, need to be recognized and relish approval. These are men who adore getting praise and who often are surrounded by swarms of sycophants. These are men who, in some cases, need to exercise power and sometimes can become drunk from it. These are men who think the rules don't apply to them and who think they're untouchable.
As leaders, these are also the type of men who are likely to break promises, manipulate and cut corners. They probably are big risk-takers. And they're prone to thinking of themselves first.
Just ask their wives, their mistresses — or the security details that often are privy to indiscretions.
Analysis from Ruth Houston-
1. A Sense of Entitlement
Politicians and public figures feel a certain sense of entitlement. They often feel that they can do whatever they want with impunity, and that includes having extramarital affairs. Since they consider themselves to be above the law, they feel they are exempt from the rules that apply to the rest of society.
2. The Thrill of the Chase
Many cheaters actually thrive on all the excitement associated with having an affair. They get the kind of adrenaline rush from cheating on their mates that they’d get from participating in skydiving or other high risk sports. Cheating politicians are no different. They get a charge from the subterfuge – all the sneaking, lying scheming and other covert activities involved in keeping an extramarital affair hidden from public view.
3. Ego-Embellishment
Politicians and public figures also cheat for a variety of ego-embellishment reasons. Having an extramarital affair can bolster a cheating politician’s ego in two ways. It can boost a flagging ego, or it can feed the already inflated ego that many politicians have. They mentally congratulate themselves for being so clever, so cunning, so intellectually superior that they’ve outwitted everyone around them by hiding what they’re doing behind closed doors.
4. Infidelity as a Status Symbol
Many politicians and public figures view having a mistress or patronizing a high-priced call girl or prostitute as a status symbol of some kind. To many rich and powerful men, or other men in high places, the ability to afford a call girl of a certain caliber is the ultimate mark of success.
5. The Excitement of Engaging in the Forbidden
Just like ordinary men, sometimes cheating politicians engage in infidelity or extramarital affairs solely for the excitement of getting away with doing something that’s forbidden. They revel in the thought that they’re smart enough to elude detection by pulling the wool over everyone’s eyes.
6. The Knowledge that They Can Get Away With It
The main reason many politicians cheat on their wives and have extramarital affairs is because they are confident that they can get away with it. And countless numbers of them do. If they thought for one minute that they might get caught, most of them would never even take such a chance.
Analysis from other sources
1. High risk-taking and extreme power-seeking. This pair of bad boys are part of an ambitious person’s make-up. The two together add up to “I can do whatever I want.” Unfortunately, they may not perceive that a downside may follow after they do it.
2. Narcissism. Add a big dose of self-importance and ego and you find the Achilles heel when it comes to satisfying sexual needs, whatever they might be. Politicians (and actors) are drawn to their professions. They want to be adored, they feel entitled, and if their careers are successful, the temptations will be there. Cheating politicians may not get their need for attention and adoration at home. The kids and the cat could care less who they are. Even the wife may not be all that impressed. She, after all, actually knows his less alluring side, like how he throws his dirty underwear in the middle of the bathroom floor and farts after eating broccoli.
3. Denial. Entering into a state that blocks the ability to understand and appreciate the potential consequences of actions is something we all have to fight. And passion has a way of pushing rational thinking under the bus. Ruth Houston writing for theAmerican Chronicle suggests that politicians cheat because of the knowledge that they can get away with it. I disagree. I don’t think they get that far in their thinking, and if they did they would also know that the National Enquirer may be close by.
4. Stress. The inevitable pressures accompanying a politician’s job could drive some to want to sneak off to somewhere that bears no resemblance to the drudge of campaigning, or being among people who want something from you but are unwilling to give anything back unless their wishes are fulfilled, or just to get away from the din for a while. Taking a hike in the Appalachians–for real–is not always the kind of choice they make.
5. Tensions at home. Politicians may relish in the limelight, but the family often suffers in ways that could easily cause estrangement. Ironically, Eliot Spitzer was promptly replaced by David Patterson who beat the press to the punch by quickly confessing his own multiple indiscretions during a rocky period in his marriage. For whatever reason, that didn’t make much of a blip. Perhaps it is because his wife, Michelle, was having dalliances of her own. I guess they canceled each other out.
6. Being alone. Politicians are away a lot. Many leave their families back home for weeks or more at a time. Seeking intimacy in unwise places can happen when the nights become too lonely and cold.
7. Men will be men. Well, that’s a simple answer, but maybe there is something to it. Even though there are not as many women in high places (yet), there is apparently only one sex scandal involving a high-level female politician. CongresswomanHelen Chenoweth-Hage (R-Idaho, 1994-2000) admitted to an earlier long-term affair. In any event, if “men will be men” is the reason, maybe they should choose another career, as long as they live in this country anyway. Was San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsome, with an eye on the California governorship, genetically incapable of refraining from cheating with one of his campaign staff’s wives?
