For Scientific American Science Quickly, I'm Kendra Peer Lewis in for Rachel Feldman.
For many of us, our mental picture of romantic love is a couple.
After all a firmly monogamous relationship between two people, ideally married,
as often portrayed in popular culture as hashtag goals,
and to some degree that is reflected in American attitudes.
A 2023 YouGov survey, for example,
found that 55% of Americans preferred some form of fully monogamous relationship.
And yet,
that same poll found that roughly a third of Americans were interested in relationships that were something other than full monogamy.
In fact, one in eight Americans said that with their primary partner's permission,
they had engaged in sexual acts with someone other than that partner.
But for many of us,
our understanding of non-monogamous relationships, especially polyamorous relationships,
where people have multiple romantic relationships at the same time, remains murky.
I talked with Rebecca Luster, a professor of anthropology at Washington University in St.
Louis and a licensed clinical social worker who recently wrote about polyamory in the March issue of Scientific American to shed some light on the topic.
Hi, Rebecca.
Thanks for taking the time to join us today.
I'm happy to be here.
How did you get interested in the subject of polyamory?