Human Nature & Relationships

I’ve always felt that humankind was still quite animalistic despite the fact that we (so arrogantly) feel that we’re so much more superior to any other species.  This sparked my ponderings about why relationships between a man and a woman fail more often than not.  And I’m not thinking of all that Teen magazine crap that gives you the “top 5 reasons why relationships fail.”  No, my thoughts are somewhere else. 

I think that it’s hard for men and women to stay together because it’s not in our nature.  Our purpose in life (as a species) is to continue our existence through reproducing.  In the animal world (for males at least), that means having sex with as many females as possible so they’ll have more chances of having offspring.  So, in  turn, females are with multiple partners as well.  

This goes into one of my theories about why there’s such a high percentage of cheating going on in relationships as a whole.  I remember some study (but don’t quote me on this) that said that 60% of men and 40% of women cheat in relationships.  Those are pretty scary numbers.  Anyway, back to my theory, sometimes I think that people cheat because of their instincts, deep rooted since the beginning of time.  Like I said above, in the animal world, most species have more than one mate (though I know there are some that mate for life).  Maybe that’s why people can run out and cheat. 

 Then there’s our logical minds that clash with that instinct.  In our minds, we are all looking for that one person who we can spend our whole lives with until the end, but then there’s those instincts unconsciously nagging at us to fulfill our purpose in life: reproduction.  Maybe that’s why so many relationships fail.  Maybe it’s because of that clash that keeps people from staying together with one person.  It’s something that we might not even be able to fully comprehend, let alone wrap our minds around.

But, like I said, these are just things I’ve considered.  Relationships are very complicated things to analyze because they all involve different people with different personalities in different circumstances.  Plus, human nature itself can be hard to understand anyway…