Defining Concepts and New Directions: A Commentary on “The Fewer the Merrier?: Assessing Stigma Surrounding Nonnormative Romantic Relationships”

Abstract

Conley and colleagues’ recent article identifying consensual nonmonogamous (CNM) relationships as stigmatized in American society made a significant contribution to the domain of relationships research. However, definitions and operationalizations of monogamous and consensual nonmonogamous relationships in their research left us with questions about the generalizability of the conclusions and with ambiguity about the specific policies they view as in need of modification in order to accommodate CNM relationships. While “The Fewer the Merrier” does shed some light on an understudied population, in order for significant advances to be made in understanding the public policy needs of the CNM group it is important to be specific about which groups are being discussed.

Which Partners Are More Human? Monogamy Matters More than Sexual Orientation for Dehumanization in Three European Countries

“…CNM relationships have received an increased visibility in recent years (e.g., and researchers have shown these relationships to span different developmental stages (e.g., Rodrigues, Lopes, & Pereira, 2016;Sizemore & Olmstead, 2016). This puts forth not only the need to revise legal rights and laws for CNM relationships, but also to have debates about family policies, rights and protections of individuals who choose to have such type of relationship (Blaney & Sinclair, 2013). As an example, when civil partnerships were approved in Italy by the end of 2016, a debate surrounding partners' fidelity arose.…”

Around Consensual Nonmonogamies: Assessing Attitudes Toward Nonexclusive Relationships

“…Compared to a monogamous couple, participants rated the consensually nonmonogamous couple as having a poorer quality relationship; they also rated them more harshly on arbitrary traits such as paying taxes on time. This was the first article to explicitly investigate the negative attitudes associated with consensual nonmonogamy using a vignette approach, and it generated a number of supportive commentaries, along with ideas to improve the methodology and theoretical frame of the research (Blaney & Sinclair, 2013;Day, 2013;Hegarty, 2012;Salvatore, 2013).…”