The Monogamy Miracle

Marriage & the Founding of Democratic Self-Governance

A study just released out of Australia claims to find that polyamorous and monogamous relationships are equally satisfying. The study is actually a literature review examining 35 research papers. “Across a number of populations, consistent evidence was found to indicate that monogamous and non-monogamous individuals experience equal levels of relationship and sexual satisfaction,” the authors report. They speculate that greater openness and communication, as well as the ability “to have a wide variety of needs met” by various partners, might be factors in the participants’ relationship satisfaction.

I remain skeptical, in part due to research design. Data was self-reported, and the researchers...