Research news: "12 Surprising Facts About Non-Monogamy"

Alternet

Sex researcher and public educator Zhana Vrangalova has a new research-news article up:

Open Relationships Reduce Jealousy? 12 Surprising Facts About Non-Monogamy

By Zhana Vrangalova

Consensually non-monogamous (CNM) relationships... are slowly gaining visibility in the media.... Here are 12 things that recent research reveals about these relationships and the people involved in them. (Some of this research is so brand new that it hasn’t yet been published, only presented at professional conferences, so you’re getting a sneak preview.)

Here are the article's 12 section leads:

1. People in CNM relationships may be more prevalent than gay people.

2. Up to 40% of men and up to 25% of women might consider CNM.

3. Desire for (non)monogamy exists on a continuum.

4. Stigma against CNM is strong, robust, and incredibly pervasive.

5. This stigma is so pervasive, that even people who are themselves in a CNM relationship think that CNM is inferior to monogamy.

6. Not all CNM types are perceived as equally bad.

7. When having sex with other people, CNM folks are more responsible regarding health than supposedly monogamous people who are cheating.

8. As a result, CNM people do not report more sexually transmitted infections than monogamous folks. As I reported in a recent Playboy article, unpublished data presented at by Justin Lehmiller suggests that people in CNM relationships report virtually identical rates of STIs as those in monogamous relationships – about 20%.

9. Swingers report more exciting and satisfying lives — sexually and otherwise — than the general population.

10. People in CNM relationships experience less jealousy than those in monogamous relationships.

11. CNM couples usually report similar (and sometimes higher) relationship quality than monogamous couples.

12. Perhaps more critically, it may be the lying and hiding that’s linked to worse relationships.

There is so much more to be learned about CNM and the people involved in it, but science is finally starting to ask these questions.

Zhana Vrangalova, PhD, is a NYC-based sex researcher who studies casual sex, nonmonogamy, and sexual orientation, and an Adjunct Professor of Psychology at New York University where she teaches Human Sexuality.

Here's the article (Oct. 15, 2014).

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