SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Individuals in polyamorous relationships report more commitment and investment with their primary partners and report more time spent on sex with their secondary partners, a new study authored by Western researchers has found.
While previous research suggests that consensually non-monogamous relationships do not significantly differ from monogamous relationships on a number of relationship-quality indicators, this is one of the first studies to examine potential differences in the relationship dynamics between an individual's multiple partners, said lead author Rhonda Balzarini, a PhD candidate in the Psychology.
The authors asked 1,308 people in online questionnaires (drawn from polyamorous affinity groups on social media) about the dynamics of their polyamorous relationships.
"The study suggests people who are 'primary' partners – those who share a household and finances, for example – experience greater commitment and investment in the relationship. However, the secondary partnership experiences greater proportion of time spent on sex, and this remains a factor even when we account for relationship length and living arrangements," she said.
Does this explain why kings and sultans had harems?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 30 2017, @02:46PM (1 child)
Polyandry was never even a realistic possibility until recently. If a woman has 3 husbands, that means that she needs to have a bare minimum of just over 4 children in order to maintain the population. And she'd have to have a whopping 5 in order to increase the population. Pregnancy up until relatively recently was extremely dangerous and women regularly died as a result.
What's more, aside from pregnancy related deaths, the world was far more dangerous for men. For example Europe would lose a third of it's male population on a relatively regular basis in their massive wars.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 30 2017, @04:35PM
Whether or not it is a viable population strategy has no bearing on it being a favorable evolutionary position for an individual.