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People in consensually non-monogamous relationships report less jealousy overall than people in monogamous relationships, according to a new study—but feeling less desirable than a partner still causes similar stress across both relationship types.
The findings, published in Evolution and Human Behavior, focus on a concept psychologists call mate value discrepancy (MVD), which refers to the gap between how attractive, smart or successful a person feels compared with their partner.
In monogamous relationships, it is well established that feeling outside a partner's league—whether above or below—can create some insecurity or tension. The new research set out to test whether the same pattern holds when couples agree to non-exclusive arrangements, such as polyamory or open relationships.
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Newsweek reached out to the study's lead author, Faith L. Swanson, of the Department of Psychology at Texas State University, for comment via email.
How the Study Worked
Researchers surveyed 512 people across 62 countries, including 312 who reported being in monogamous relationships and 200 in consensually non-monogamous ones. Participants answered questions about themselves and up to two romantic partners, describing how they viewed their own value as a partner and how they handled challenges such as jealousy and conflict within their dynamic.
The team used established psychological measures to track mate value, mate guarding, conflict and relationship maintenance behavior.
Feeling Less Desirable Brings Similar Strain
Across both groups, people who felt more replaceable than their main partner reported more frequent fights and felt more rivalry with others of the same sex. That pattern lines up with prior research on monogamous couples. When someone feels less desirable than their partner, they tend to see the relationship as being at risk or have more insecurities, which can in some cases lead to jealousy and controlling behavior aimed at keeping the partner from leaving.
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With secondary partners in non-monogamous relationships, the dynamic reversed.
Instead of insecurity driving conflict, feeling more desirable than a secondary partner predicted more conflict, rivalry and effort spent trying to hold on to that partner—the opposite of what happens with a primary partner.
Communication Helps, Hierarchy Doesn’t
Overall, people in non-monogamous relationships reported notably less jealousy than monogamous participants, along with slightly lower mate guarding and rivalry. But the biggest factor tied to fewer relationship problems in both groups was communication—openly discussing attraction and jealousy, and, in non-monogamous relationships, feeling genuine happiness about a partner's intimacy with someone else.
Ranking partners into a hierarchy, by contrast, tended to backfire in any scenario, fueling more jealousy, rivalry, resentment and mate guarding.
The researchers say the results challenge the assumption that non-monogamy automatically eliminates jealousy.
People in consensually non-monogamous relationships were not more vulnerable to the effects of feeling mismatched in desirability than monogamous people, the findings found, but they were not more resilient to it either.
Most relationship research has, to date, focused on monogamous couples, since monogamy remains the cultural norm in much of the world. Now, the authors say the findings could help counselors and educators working with people from a range of relationship structures better move through challenges and conflict.
Reference
Swanson, F. L., et al. (2026). How perceived mate value discrepancies are related to jealousy, mate guarding, intrasexual competition, and partner conflict in monogamous and consensually non-monogamous relationships. Evolution and Human Behavior. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2026.106936.
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Kara Dolman and Emma Lee-Sang
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