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Thompson AE, Cipriano AE, Kirkeby KM, Wilder D, Lehmiller JJ. Exploring Variations in North American Adults' Attitudes, Interest, Experience, and Outcomes Related to Mixed-Gender Threesomes: A Replication and Extension. ARCHIVES OF SEXUAL BEHAVIOR 2021; 50:1433-1448. [PMID: 33175272 DOI: 10.1007/s10508-020-01829-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/09/2020] [Revised: 08/20/2020] [Accepted: 08/24/2020] [Indexed: 05/25/2023]
Abstract
Mixed-gender threesomes (MGTs) are a type of consensually nonmonogamous sexual encounter involving three people of more than one gender. Little research has been conducted on MGTs, and what little work does exist is limited to college students, who may actually be less experienced with MGTs than older adults. The present study investigated attitudes toward, interest in, experiences with, and outcomes of MGTs in two samples (college N = 231; online N = 1342), comprised of 907 heterosexual and 666 sexual minority participants in total. Results indicated that participants reported neutral-to-positive attitudes toward and moderate-to-high levels of interest in MGTs (81% indicated some degree of interest). MGTs involving familiar others were preferred to those involving strangers. Men, sexual minority individuals, and participants from the online sample reported more favorable attitudes toward and greater interest in MGTs as compared to women, heterosexual individuals, and participants from the student sample. In addition, 30% of participants indicated having experience with a MGT. Sexual minority individuals reported more experience with MGTs and more positive outcomes than did heterosexual individuals. In addition, on average, participants reported that their MGT experiences "met expectations." Overall, these results indicate that MGTs are a common sexual behavior that often results in positive outcomes, especially among sexual minority individuals. Additional research on this understudied topic is needed, particularly as it relates to outcomes and the role of MGTs in consensually nonmonogamous relationships.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ashley E Thompson
- Department of Psychology, University of Minnesota Duluth, 320 Bohannon Hall 1207, Ordean Court, Duluth, MN, 55812-3010, USA.
| | - Allison E Cipriano
- Department of Psychology, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE, USA
| | | | - Delaney Wilder
- Department of Psychology, University of Minnesota Duluth, 320 Bohannon Hall 1207, Ordean Court, Duluth, MN, 55812-3010, USA
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Balzarini RN, McDonald JN, Kohut T, Lehmiller JJ, Holmes BM, Harman JJ. Compersion: When Jealousy-Inducing Situations Don't (Just) Induce Jealousy. ARCHIVES OF SEXUAL BEHAVIOR 2021; 50:1311-1324. [PMID: 34041641 DOI: 10.1007/s10508-020-01853-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/20/2019] [Revised: 07/03/2020] [Accepted: 09/26/2020] [Indexed: 05/25/2023]
Abstract
Emotional reactions to a partner's extradyadic romantic interests are assumed to be negative and characterized by jealousy, an emotional state that arises over a perceived threat to one's relationship. Yet, reactions may also be positive, and involve compersion, or taking joy in one's partner's pleasure in other sexual and relational encounters. Although some have argued that compersion is the opposite of jealousy, research suggests that compersion and jealousy may not be opposing constructs, despite being treated this way in both theoretical and empirical research. Using a convenience sample of polyamorous (N = 3530) and monogamous (N = 1358) individuals, we draw on theories of jealousy, emotional ambivalence, and emotional forecasting to examine people's anticipated affective responses to hypothetical situations involving a partner's extradyadic relations and assess whether experience with having a partner engage in extradyadic relations was associated with anticipating less jealousy and more compersion. Results suggest that people in polyamorous relationships report less jealousy and more compersion with their partners, and that personal experience involving a partner's extradyadic romantic interests predicted more compersion and less jealousy, with experience predicting greater increases in compersion among monogamous than polyamorous participants. Finally, while anticipated compersion was associated with greater relationship satisfaction, neither jealousy nor ambivalence was associated with relationship satisfaction. These results further demonstrate that individuals can experience both positive and negative reactions to a partner's extradyadic relations, both based on actual experience and projection of responses to future events, and that real-life experiences are important in anticipating these emotions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rhonda N Balzarini
- Department of Psychology, Texas State University, San Marcos, TX, 78666, USA.
| | - James N McDonald
- Department of Psychology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA
| | - Taylor Kohut
- Department of Psychology, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada
| | | | - Bjarne M Holmes
- Department of Psychology, Champlain College, Burlington, VT, USA
| | - Jennifer J Harman
- Department of Psychology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA
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Mogilski JK, Reeve SD, Nicolas SCA, Donaldson SH, Mitchell VE, Welling LLM. Jealousy, Consent, and Compersion Within Monogamous and Consensually Non-Monogamous Romantic Relationships. ARCHIVES OF SEXUAL BEHAVIOR 2019; 48:1811-1828. [PMID: 30607710 DOI: 10.1007/s10508-018-1286-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/02/2017] [Revised: 07/21/2018] [Accepted: 08/03/2018] [Indexed: 05/25/2023]
Abstract
Evolutionary psychological research has studied romantic jealousy extensively within monogamous relationships, but has largely ignored jealousy among partners who mutually consent to forming extra-pair relationships (i.e., consensual non-monogamy; CNM). We examined monogamous (n = 529) and CNM (n = 159) individuals' reactions to imagining their romantic partner(s)'s extra-pair involvement. For each romantic partner, men and women completed measures of relationship jealousy and reacted to scenarios of their partner's extra-pair emotional and sexual involvement. Scenarios prompted participants to indicate which type of involvement would be more distressing and more enjoyable. They also described whether or not participants had consented to their partner's extradyadic relationship. Monogamous men were more distressed by a partner's extradyadic sexual versus emotional involvement (and a partner's emotional involvement was more enjoyable) whether the scenario was consensual or not. Monogamous women were more distressed by a partner's emotional versus sexual involvement (and a partner's sexual involvement was more enjoyable) for consensual, but not non-consensual, scenarios. There were no gender differences among CNM participants. Monogamous individuals reported greater emotional distress toward a partner's imagined extradyadic involvement, whereas CNM individuals reported thinking about their partner's extra-pair relationships more frequently. Monogamous (vs. CNM) individuals reported greater confidence that their partner would never cheat on them (i.e., enter another relationship without their consent), and CNM participants were more confident that their primary versus secondary partner would never cheat, although this effect was stronger among CNM women. Moreover, CNM participants rated that it was more important that their primary versus secondary partner did not cheat, and reported greater distress imagining that their primary versus secondary partner had cheated. Women in CNM relationships rated it more important that their partner did not cheat sexually than emotionally. Finally, we replicated previous research showing that monogamous individuals mate guard more than CNM individuals, who mate guard their primary versus secondary partner more frequently. Future directions for developing evolutionary and romantic relationship research on CNM are discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Justin K Mogilski
- Department of Psychology, Oakland University, Pryale Hall, 654 Pioneer Drive, Rochester, MI, 48039, USA
| | - Simon D Reeve
- Department of Psychology, Oakland University, Pryale Hall, 654 Pioneer Drive, Rochester, MI, 48039, USA
| | - Sylis C A Nicolas
- Department of Psychology, Oakland University, Pryale Hall, 654 Pioneer Drive, Rochester, MI, 48039, USA
| | - Sarah H Donaldson
- Department of Psychology, Oakland University, Pryale Hall, 654 Pioneer Drive, Rochester, MI, 48039, USA
- Department of Psychology, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, USA
| | - Virginia E Mitchell
- Department of Psychology, Oakland University, Pryale Hall, 654 Pioneer Drive, Rochester, MI, 48039, USA
| | - Lisa L M Welling
- Department of Psychology, Oakland University, Pryale Hall, 654 Pioneer Drive, Rochester, MI, 48039, USA.
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Beltrán-Morillas AM, Valor-Segura I, Expósito F. Unforgiveness Motivations in Romantic Relationships Experiencing Infidelity: Negative Affect and Anxious Attachment to the Partner as Predictors. Front Psychol 2019; 10:434. [PMID: 30967804 PMCID: PMC6439209 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00434] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/10/2018] [Accepted: 02/13/2019] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Infidelity is considered an unforgivable betrayal. However, not all behaviors considered unfaithful affect the person who suffers them in the same way. Therefore, to have a better understanding of unforgiveness according to different extradyadic behaviors, two studies were designed. Study 1 (N = 240) explored which extradyadic behaviors are considered as more indicative of infidelity. The results revealed that sexual behaviors were considered more unfaithful when compared with technological, emotional/affective, and solitary behaviors. Study 2 (N = 378) examined the influence of experienced extradyadic behaviors on unforgiveness, negative affect, and anxious attachment to the partner. The results showed that (a) sexual and technological behaviors were less frequently forgiven and promoted a more intense negative affect, (b) anxious attachment was predictive of unforgiveness for sexual and technological behaviors, and (c) negative affect mediated the relationship between anxious attachment and unforgiveness for sexual and technological behaviors. These findings and their possible implications for romantic relationships are discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ana M Beltrán-Morillas
- Mind, Brain and Behavior Research Center, Department of Social Psychology, University of Granada, Granada, Spain
| | - Inmaculada Valor-Segura
- Mind, Brain and Behavior Research Center, Department of Social Psychology, University of Granada, Granada, Spain
| | - Francisca Expósito
- Mind, Brain and Behavior Research Center, Department of Social Psychology, University of Granada, Granada, Spain
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Thompson AE, O’Sullivan LF. Understanding Variations in Judgments of Infidelity: An Application of Attribution Theory. BASIC AND APPLIED SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY 2017. [DOI: 10.1080/01973533.2017.1350578] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/19/2022]
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