Benefit of the Doubt

Often, I like to give people and matters the benefit of the doubt because I like to have faith in them. I like to believe that the general public is less evil, less conniving, more innocent, more considerate than they seem and that their actions will turn out for the better despite previous experiences proving otherwise.
But lately, I have started to wonder whether I should be doing that so much. Do people deserve the benefit of the doubt? My benefit of the doubt? I used to be very cynical, but then people started proving me wrong for not giving them the benefit of the doubt. But now that I have been doing so for so long, I recently noticed that I only end up disappointed and fooled.

Have my expectations for those around me risen so much that my satisfaction is nearly impossible to reach? Should my expectations for everybody and everything be lower so that my satisfaction can be more easily achieved? But if I lower my expectations, I can't help but feel that everyone really can do better--thereby again giving them the benefit of the doubt.

Why is the term "benefit of the doubt," anyway? Who benefits? Let's say the professor were to give the benefit of the doubt to a student who may have been cheating. So, does the student benefit? And would the doubt just be the issue of cheating? I don't even understand sometimes...
But in this case, good for the student that the professor gave him the benefit of the doubt. But what is the professor can't shake off the suspicion?! And what if the student really did cheat, but now that he has gotten away with it, he feels guilty?! Who's the doubter and who's the beneficiary now?

I am so confused.
So, as much as I hate disappointment, I think I will continue to give people the benefit of the doubt--whatever that even really means--because I still want to believe that people can and will do better than they may lead on.

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