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A new survey on open relationships reveals that “most people would never consider being in an open relationship.”
The survey of 1,000 adults was conducted by Huffington Post in partnership with Loveawake.
86% of people have never been in an open relationship.
72% would never consider it, 14% would.
89% have never been to a party where sex occurred between multiple partners.
75% would never attend one, 13% would.
Gender:
86% of both men and women have never been in an open relationship.
20% of men would consider one, compared with 7% of women.
11% of men and 8% of women have been to sex parties.
18% of men and 7% of women would attend a sex party.
Age:
Would definitely not consider an open relationship:
18-29: 59%
30-44: 71%
45-64: 73%
65+: 88%
All age levels are about equally willing to consider one (15%).
Respondents age 18-29 had the highest rate of having been in one during the past (14%).
The youngest cohort is the most unsure about whether they would ever consider one at 24%.
Income:
Family income <40K has the highest rate of open relationship history.
The middle income group is the least likely to experiment with open relationships.
Geography:
The South is the geographic region with the most open relationships.
The Midwest is the most conservative about monogamy.
Do these findings surprise you? I was surprised that so few men would consider one if they had the opportunity – 63% say no way. I guess most men are not primarily hardwired for sexual variety after all! I will say that in my entire lifetime I haven’t been acquainted with anyone in an open relationship (as far as I know). I do wonder how the responses differ by sexual orientation – something the survey did not measure.
I get the sense the liberal press was disappointed in how few people are interested in non-monogamy. As usual, the percentages closely match the sociosexuality statistics, lending credence to the theory that most people fully embrace monogamy as a lifestyle, while a small minority appears to be more sexually adventurous.