Who are swingers and polys?

Occasionally I will visit the EJHS site to read their studies and I cam across one very interesting study. This online study regards painting a portrait of current swingers and current polys. Online studies has it advantages such as: protecting anonymity, quick, and cost effective. However, the major drawback to any online study it is an online. Meaning there is a risk the same individual participated multiple times skewing the results and because their is anonymity their is a higher chance an individual answering may not answer truthfully. Also any questionnaire, regardless if it is online, is difficult to analyze beyond basic statistical analysis. In this study the sample was quite small, especially for polygamists. Thereby providing very limited and very general results.

Nonetheless this study did show some interesting results such as:

• Average age for swingers 43 years
• Average age for those involved in polyamory 46 years old
• Both are degree educated but polys slightly less education
• 38% of swingers made more than $70,000 / year where as 43% claiming to be poly made more than $70,000 / year
• Interestingly 60% of the swingers respondent were male but nearly 60% of the respondents stating poly were female
• Strongest political affiliation was Democrat Party
• Most stated they held either moderate or liberal views.
• Life satisfaction, for both swingers and polys, were about the same as the general ‘vanilla’ population

The one fact I found interesting is a slight shift ‘to the left’ for political ideology and I have to question if this is due to the President being Democrat.

Also the study, for me, confirmed education and income plays a factor in choosing this type of experience.  I believe, it is consistent with other studies. Nonetheless, I would like to have read about the prevalence of swinging and polyamory in the general population along with the average length of the relationship when compared to the general population.

I recommend anyone interested in research into swinging or polyamory take a moment to read it.

Additional Articles

Canadian Study on sex and threesome

Open relationship study

Librarian and Pastor into Threesomes

Taking one for the team

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Family message about sex and impact on wanting a threesome

Electronic Journal of Human Sexuality is a great source of research regarding sexual behavior and it is a good source for understanding the research surrounding sexual behavior. Recently a 16 June 2013 article talk about the role of family messaging about sex and its impact.

The sample was college / university students who receive extra credit and it raises questions about it application to adults older than 30. Also using a survey does raise questions about how the students responded. Nonetheless it does provide insight on how an individual’s family can shape a individual’s attitude about having a threesome. This can have a prolific impact on bringing up the idea, the response received, and attitude towards the threesome after it happens.

It is a good article for understanding how previous messages about sex can shape the experience and by understanding the article, it can help with discussing the topic. Therefore I encourage anyone wanting more understanding to read the article and think about how the message about sex impacts us all.