A recent study has taken a closer look at polyamory and the individuals who engage in such relationships.
The concept of polyamory and ‘throuples’ has garnered more spotlight in recent times, particularly following the debut of Zendaya’s latest film, *Challengers*.
In the movie, Zendaya’s character finds herself entangled in a passionate love triangle with two men.
However, unlike the film where the characters played by Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist are primarily attracted to Zendaya, there’s a new sexual phenomenon that reimagines these types of relationships.
This phenomenon is termed symbiosexuality, which refers to a person’s attraction to an already established couple rather than to the individuals themselves.
This form of attraction is defined as ‘an attraction to the energy, multidimensionality, and power shared between people in relationships’.
Sally W. Johnston, an adjunct professor of anthropology and sociology at Seattle University, recently conducted a study revealing that many participants felt a sexual and romantic attraction to a ‘third force’ or ‘synergy’ between the existing couple members, as reported by MailOnline.
Given these findings, Johnston suggests that we need to ‘rethink the nature of human attraction and desire as only one-to-one experiences’.
The results of Johnston’s research, published in the Archives of Sexual Behavior, examined secondary data from the 2023 The Pleasure Study, which surveyed 373 participants about their sexual and gender identities.
The study explains: “Findings from this study support the hypothesis that people experience symbiosexual attraction, which they describe as an attraction to the energy, multidimensionality, and power shared between people in relationships.”
“Further, findings from this study indicate that a diverse group of people experience symbiosexual attraction and, while unanticipated, symbiosexual attraction can be a strong, frequent, and/or pervasive experience.”
Johnston first came across the concept of symbiosexuality while investigating the treatment of ‘unicorns’ within polyamorous communities.
According to Very Well Mind, a unicorn is ‘a person who is willing to join an existing couple’.
“The sexual meaning of a unicorn is someone who engages in sexual activity with a couple but does not participate in other aspects of the relationship,” it adds.
Despite the sexual benefits associated with being a ‘unicorn’, Johnston discovered that these individuals are often poorly treated and can become objectified and ostracized, which is supported by her recent findings.
“Sexual and romantic relationships between single people and couples (potentially motivated by symbiosexual attraction) receive a lot of negative attention in polyamorous communities,” she shared with PsyPost.
“I wanted to learn more about this understudied attraction.”