A report recently published by YouGov surveyed 1,000 participants on the subject of non-monogamy and found that nearly half of Millennials see monogamy on a spectrum, plotting their ideal relationships somewhere between "completely monogamous" or "completely non-monogamous." The survey, which was performed in September of this year, presented monogamy on a "Kinsey scale" of sorts, with participants identifying relationship types on a scale of 0 to 6, with 0 signifying "completely monogamous" and 6 signifying "completely non-monogamous." Participants under 30 were least likely to want a relationship that was completely monogamous of any age group, with only 51 percent of them identifying their ideal relationship as a"0—completely monogamous."
Interestingly, the age groups in which the most people identified their ideal relationship as a "6—completely non-monogamous" were 30-44 and 45-64, with nine percent of respondents in each age group desiring exclusively non-monogamous relationships. In a different category, the survey broke down answers to the question by the respondents' income instead of age, and found that those making under $50,000 were the least likely to want complete monogamy (56 percent) and most likely to want complete non-monogamy (10 percent). The racial breakdown had black respondents nearly doubling white respondents, with nine percent of black folks surveyed identifying their ideal relationship as completely non-monogamous. Hispanic respondents nearly quadrupled their white counterparts with 18 percent desiring a completely non-monogamous relationship.
A different question on the survey asked respondents to identify where on the scale their current relationship lies, and the 30-44 age group again had the most people, eight percent, reporting six— completely non-monogamous. But Millennials still reported the lowest number of completely monogamous relationships, with 60 percent of respondents under 30 identifying their current relationships that way.
As far as respondents who had already acted on their non-monogamous impulses, 17 percent of both those under 30 and those in the 30-44 age group say they have already engaged in sexual activities with the consent of their primary partner. When asked how they would react if their primary partner requested to engage in sexual activities with another person, only a little over half of those under 30 — 56 percent — said there was no way they'd be OK with it. Twenty-six percent said it would depend on the situation and six percent said they would be OK with it.
While in each demographic, a majority of respondents were always more often to be in favor of 0—complete non-monogamy rather than any other point on the spectrum, the fact that people under 30 only have a 1-point margin to that effect indicates the increasing rejection of compulsory monogamous coupleship as a social norm.
Images: teksomolika/Fotolia; Giphy
