Cheaters often use anger as a way to avoid responsibility.
You might have caught them red handed. Instead of repenting then and there, they turn on you with anger:
-Maybe they blame you for “snooping” or otherwise invading their sacred privacy?
-Maybe they use the occasion to say you forced them into this (sin)?
-Maybe they just launch into a personal and nasty attack of you?
The point is to distract you from the truth and to avoid responsibility. Anger creates space between you and them. It makes them feel powerful.
In other words, the cheater is using anger to regain power in a situation where they lost power–i.e. they lost the power of the exposed awful secret.
This response is one the reasons I recommend NOT confronting a cheater alone. You just do not know how the cheater might respond once their lies are exposed. It is an explosive situation.
Cheater outrage is part of dealing with a manipulative person. Just beware of the tactic and plan accordingly.
It was because of the barrage of poor excuses and outrage she kept throwing in my face that I could no longer speak to my wife of 21 years. In only two weeks after she disclosed to me the existence of her affair with a married man, I found myself in my lawyer’s office filing for divorce on grounds of adultery. I tried to reconcile with her on four occasions before the divorce was finalized, and each time her outrage and denial of wrongdoing came forth, eliminating that possibility. Everything she did to end our marriage was my fault. Even to this day, I can no longer engage in conversation with her, three years after divorce. She is extremely disengaged with the truth of what she did to our children and me.
Sadly, some people refuse to walk in the light of the truth.