From Jensen Huang to Bill Gates… The psychology that leads the powerful to justify infidelity - 경향신문

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SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang attend the AI Summit held in San Francisco on July 24, hosted by President Lee Jae Myung, and are seen talking. Reporter Lee Jun-heon

As Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, the largest artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductor company in the world, acknowledged being unfaithful to his wife, past cases of extramarital affairs by global business leaders and politicians have drawn renewed attention. There have been many instances in which people who achieved social success and vast wealthsuch as SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, and former International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahnpublicly admitted to extramarital relationships. Why do people who possess money, power, and prestige choose other relationships while already having established families?

On the 8th (local time), Huang wrote in an email to Nvidia employees, “I was unfaithful to my wife. My actions hurt my wife and children, and there is no excuse.” This statement followed reports about his relationship with a woman named Alice Huang, whom U.S. intelligence authorities judge to be an agent for Chinese intelligence. Nvidia's board has launched an independent investigation related to reports that the CEO became a target of a foreign intelligence service. However, whether the woman engaged in espionage and whether any Nvidia secrets were leaked has not yet been determined.

In South Korea, SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won is a representative case. In December 2015, he disclosed in a letter to the media that he had a child born out of wedlock. He said that while discussing divorce from Noh So-young, director of Art Center Nabi, he met another woman and had a child with her. Acknowledging that he should have ended his marriage before starting a new family, he admitted it “was not right procedurally or ethically.” He also stated he would take responsibility even if he faced public criticism over his private life.

Bill Gates attends the 56th World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting held in Davos, Switzerland, last January. Reuters/Yonhap News

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates also acknowledged in 2021 that he had an extramarital relationship with an employee. Through a spokesperson, Gates said he had an inappropriate relationship with a Microsoft employee about 20 years earlier. The Microsoft board investigated the relationship, and Gates had already stepped down from the board in 2020, rather than the following year. While it cannot be concluded that the affair directly caused his board departure or divorce, it became a case where a world-renowned founder's private life spilled over into a corporate governance issue.

There are similar cases in politics. Former IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn admitted in 2008 that, while married, he had a relationship with a female IMF employee and apologized to staff. He acknowledged fault for initiating the relationship but denied allegations of abusing his power. The IMF board conducted an external investigation and announced it found no evidence of abuse of authority or favoritism.

Former CIA Director David Petraeus also admitted in 2012 to an extramarital relationship with Paula Broadwell, an author and former service member, and resigned. Broadwell co-wrote Petraeus's biography. The relationship came to light during an FBI probe into emails between the two. It was a case in which someone who had risen through the top ranks of the military to head a U.S. intelligence agency ended his career over a private matter.

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton is another prominent case. He initially denied having a relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky, but in a nationally televised address in August of the same year, he acknowledged an inappropriate relationship and admitted fault. He later apologized to his family and the public. The episode escalated into an impeachment crisis in U.S. politics.

In Italy, former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, a media tycoon-turned-politician, is emblematic. He repeatedly faced controversy over parties with women and allegations of paying for sex. In 2009, he acknowledged that a businessman brought women to his Rome residence but denied allegations that he paid for sexual relations. His wife, Veronica Lario, demanded a divorce after he attended an 18-year-old woman's birthday party. Berlusconi described himself as no saint while denying the prostitution allegations. His case shows how private-life scandals can affect political debate and approval ratings.

Why, then, do people who have risen to such high status become more likely to have affairs? Psychological research suggests that power can shape a person's self-perception and behavior.

A representative example is a 2011 paper by researchers at Tilburg University in the Netherlands, published in Psychological Science, titled ‘Power Increases Infidelity Among Men and Women’. The researchers surveyed 1,561 professionals to examine the relationship between power and infidelity. They found that the higher a person's power, the greater both actual experience with infidelity and intentions to engage in it in the future. One reason, they explained, is that power boosts confidence in their own attractiveness. The belief that, if they wish, they can attract others' attention connects to the likelihood of infidelity. This pattern appeared not only among men but also among women.

Another theory holds that power can weaken the psychological brakes that inhibit behavior. UC Berkeley psychologists Dacher Keltner, Deborah Gruenfeld, and Cameron Anderson proposed the ‘approach-inhibition theory’ in a 2003 paper in Psychological Review. People with more power tend to focus on rewards and opportunities and are more inclined to act on their desires, whereas those with less power are more conscious of punishment, social constraints, and others' reactions, and thus tend to restrain their behavior. Although the study did not examine infidelity itself, it provides psychological background for understanding how those with power may regulate their desires differently.

A 2024 study in the European Journal of Social Psychology also examined the link between power and misconduct. The researchers explained that, more than merely feeling powerful, stron certainty about that power can increase unethical choices and cheating. When people with power are overly certain of their own judgment, they may find it easier to justify their actions. Conversely, for people who hold negative attitudes toward misconduct, power does not necessarily lead to negative outcomes.

Of course, not everyone with power engages in infidelity. Many factors are involved, including personal values and personality, the state of a marriage, and opportunities to form relationships. Nor can research findings alone explain the behavior of any specific business leader or politician. Still, studies suggesting that growing power can heighten confidence in personal attractiveness and weaken psychological constraints on behavior offer one clue to understanding infidelity among highly successful people.

Does that mean infidelity faces less moral condemnation abroad? In fact, surveys show that moral condemnation of infidelity remains strong. According to findings released in March 2026 by the Pew Research Center, which surveyed more than 30,000 adults in 25 countries including South Korea in 2025, the median share across 25 countries saying marital infidelity is morally unacceptable was 77%. South Korea registered 83%, lower than the United States (90%) and Indonesia and Turkey (92% each) but higher than France (53%) and Germany (55%). Even if moral condemnation is relatively lower in France and Germany, that does not mean infidelity is socially accepted.

The French daily Le Monde explored how infidelity is viewed in modern society in a six-part series last July titled ‘Adultery in the 21st Century’. Le Monde noted that although adultery was decriminalized in 1975 in France, the obligation of fidelity between spouses remains in law. The French Civil Code stipulates that spouses owe each other respect and fidelity.

Solene Paillet, marketing director of Glidden, a dating site focused on extramarital encounters, pushed back against the interpretation that infidelity has become more socially accepted than in the past. She told Le Monde that “infidelity remains a taboo topic” and that “younger generations are more unabashed in criticizing it than 15 years ago.”

Separate from the fact that social taboos around infidelity persist, not everyone who commits it faces the same level of censure. Beyond the economic and social conditions that enable affairs, how society responds afterward also differs by gender. Sociologist Charlotte Levain told Le Monde that “the more financial means and autonomy people have, the easier it is for them to secure the time and opportunities to have affairs,” and that “especially for men, infidelity is sometimes dismissed as a momentary mistake or lapse and forgiven, whereas women face a much stricter moral yardstick.”