Reasons Why People Catfish Others
People are motivated to Catfish others for a multitude of reasons. Unlike most crimes, the primary purpose goes beyond the lure of financial gain. From the few studies conducted on this topic, loneliness was found to be one of the biggest factors causing people to Catfish.
Personal insecurities were also very high up on the list. The people doing the deceptive deed could have self-esteem problems, consider themselves ugly and unattractive, or have ongoing struggles with social connection. Beyond the physical attributes, they could wish for a number of other qualities. Maybe they don’t believe they are interesting enough, wish they were more athletic, hope to be a better mother, are ashamed by their reputation in their community, be curious to know how they would be treated by someone who didn’t know they use drugs – the list could go on and on.
It wouldn’t take a rocket scientist to tell you that these individuals could be mentally or emotionally unstable. Being able to envision and portray yourself as someone that you are not certainly validates that the individual is living with some form of mental illness, albeit across a broad spectrum. People who Catfish may just want someone to support them emotionally and use it as a means to receive sympathy for any number of personal or perceived hardships (which supports my idea that Catfish victims are exceptionally caring people).
One of the more obvious motives is monetary gain. They may ask you for money so they can cover a personal expense or buy themselves a gift that without you being physically present would magically bring them an immense amount of joy. Participating in a romantic fantasy is another potential spark for these terribly deceptive acts. Married people may want to explore what it’s like being single again because they aren’t satisfied in their existing relationship. It could also involve a gender switch where the Catfish wants to explore a different part of their sexuality.
Another reason for this reckless behavior is the pursuit of entertainment. A Catfish might just be bored and see this as a way to spice up their life. While to you and me, this seems like a sick behavior and very illogical, people do go in this direction. Jealousy and revenge are less common but valid options when it comes to understanding the landscape of ulterior motives. Maybe the Catfish was bullied by this person in the past or jealous of their social status and life circumstances. If they have a comfort zone of private access to another person’s digital media and are fueled by self-loathing and loneliness, that could explain their motive for becoming a Catfish.
Catfishing is an unusual behavior that seems to primarily have psychological benefits for the perpetrators. I’d like to imagine that most of them feel guilty about initiating and engaging in the activity. Unfortunately, like any addiction, it has been found that Catfishing can become something that is hard to resist once an individual has started. There are a number of cases where people are repeat offenders and have done it upwards of nine or ten different times.
The reason why many of these deceptive online relationships end is because the Catfish fears they will be discovered after they let the original connection get out of control. Sadly, most of these online villains will let the relationship go on for as long as they can.