Polygamous Desire in a Monogamous Nation

Men are six times more open to polygynous relationships than women

Photo by Levi Guzman on Unsplash

PsyPost has a new piece covering my recent paper, led by Dr. Andrew Thomas at Swansea University, on polygamous desires in a monogamous nation. Here’s an excerpt.

New research conducted in the United Kingdom found that multi-partner relationships are generally less desirable than singleness and monogamy. However, the study found that men are six times more likely than women to be open to polygynous relationships, which involve one man with multiple female partners... The paper was published in Archives of Sexual Behavior…

Study author Andrew G. Thomas and his colleagues wanted to assess how much interest there is for polygamous relationships in cultures where monogamy is the norm… The researchers conducted two studies to explore these dynamics…

Results of the first study showed that… 19% of participants declared that they are interested in polygynous relationships with an additional 16% being unsure. For polyandrous relationships, it was 10% stating that they are interested and additional 15% being unsure.

Men were 3.5 more likely to say “Yes” to polygynous than to polyandrous relationships. Women were twice as likely to say “Yes” to polyandry than to polygyny. Overall, monogamous relationships were the most popular, followed by polygynous. Two-timing, a type of relationship where an individual is in a relationship with two people who are unaware of each other was the least popular.

Results of study 2 confirmed the results of the first study to a large extent. 62% of participants declared that they are not interested in a polygynous relationship. However, men were 6 times more open to such a relationship than women... Again, monogamy was the favored and two-timing the least favored relationship type…

“In the UK sample, a sizeable minority of individuals showed interest in polygamous relationships. The greatest interest came from men, who liked the idea of polygyny far more than women. In contrast, both sexes had similar, very low levels of interest in polyandry,” the study authors concluded.

Here’s the key graph from Study 1. Relationships within the blue box involve one man with more than woman; those in the red box involve one woman with more than one man.

As we noted in the paper,

Perhaps the clearest, yet least surprising finding across the two studies was that singlehood and monogamy were seen as much more desirable than multi-partner relationships. This pattern, common to both sexes, likely reflects the combination of the cultural norms of the UK (where plural marriage is illegal and consensual multi-partner relationships are taboo) and a human mating psychology evolved in the context of pair-bonding (Stewart-Williams & Thomas, 2013). As previously noted, even among cultures which permit polygamy, monogamous relationships are the dominant strategy, likely because of the historical benefits afforded by pair-bonding (including bi-parental care). At the same time, a large minority of our participants were open to the idea of polygamous relationships despite cultural forces pushing against it. This suggests that such interests might be part of an evolved mating psychology rather than a modern cultural product (Stewart-Williams, 2018)...

The sex differences uncovered in our research were consistent with parental investment theory (Trivers, 1972). Men were much more open to a relationship which allows the opportunity to impregnate multiple women (polygyny) than women were, and they were less open to a relationship which might act as a barrier to fitness (polyandry). For women, this pattern was reversed but the difference was much smaller (openness) or non-significant (appeal) depending on the measure used. Unlike men, increased sexual access does not allow women to have more children... As such, the small preference for polyandry over polygyny in women likely reflects differences in opportunities to enhance fitness through partner investment. A woman might share the resources of her partner with other women in a polygynous relationship, whereas she would potentially have access to the resources of two or more men in a polyandrous one.

• You can read the PsyPost piece here.

• And you can read our original paper here.

---

Follow Steve on Twitter/X.

I love writing the Nature-Nurture-Nietzsche Newsletter - but it’s a lot of work! If you can afford it, please consider upgrading to a paid subscription. A paid subscription will get you: (1) full access to all new posts and the archive, (2) full access to my “12 Things Everyone Should Know” posts, Linkfests, and other regular features, and (3) the ability to post comments and interact with the N³ Newsletter community. It’ll also allow me continue writing the newsletter. Thanks!

All the best,

Steve