It seems that finding romance, love, and sexual intimacy is a central part of our life experience for most people and although people engage in romance in a variety of ways, alternatives to classic “couple/dyad” are largely overlooked in relationship research to date.
Now scholars and the media alike have recently started to argue that the rules of romance are and relationships are changing, suggesting that interest in consensual departures from monogamy may become popular as people navigate their long-term coupling.
Although this academic and popular interest in consensual nonmonogamy (CNM) is increasing, still very little is known about the actual prevalence of CNM.
The Findings From Two National Samples of Single Americans
By using two separate U.S. Census based quota samples of single adults in the United States (Study 1: n = 3,905; Study 2: n = 4,813), the present studies show that more than one in five (21.9% in Study 1; 21.2% in Study 2) participants report engaging in CNM at some point in their lifetime.
Its interesting that this proportion seems to remain constant across age, education level, income, religion, region, political affiliation, and race, but varied with gender and sexual orientation.
Specifically, men (compared to women) and people who identify as gay, lesbian, or bisexual (compared to those who identify as heterosexual) were more likely to report previous engagement in CNM.
These findings suggest that a sizable and diverse proportion of U.S. adults have experienced CNM, highlighting the need to incorporate CNM into theoretical and empirical therapy and family science work.
Fascinating! Thank you.
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Really interesting numbers 1 in 5 is quite surprising.
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It doesn’t surprise me really. I was the kid in Sunday School who asked when multiple marriages became a bad thing. I didn’t know the word (poly) at the time but always asked why we didn’t talk about the fact that all of our Biblical heroes had multiple wives/lovers. It didn’t seem to piss off God from what I was reading.
Well, it didn’t go over well as you can imagine. I questioned everything and received no answers. I took that as a sign that they were unwilling to answer because they would have to question things themselves.
So I went on my merry way until I was labeled – REBELLIOUS. Then it was over.
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I find I question everything, and try to assume nothing. It makes for good discussion and debate, but sadly also argument with those too stupid to realise when they’ve lost.
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Indeed. I’m weary of the arguments so I just leave them be
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