New Study Reveals Open Relationships are Just as Satisfying as Monogamous Ones

New interpersonal research published in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, has revealed that people in consensually non-monogamous (CNM) relationships (meaning they either have sex with or date/love multiple partners) are equally as happy as people who are exclusively partnered.

This study seems like something gay men have literally known for ever, but hey, at least now we have the receipts for all y'all who say "open relationships never work."

The study, out of University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada, explored relationship satisfaction among more than 140 people in CNM relationships and more than 200 in monogamous ones.

"In both monogamous and non-monogamous relationships, people who engage in sex to be close to a partner and to fulfill their sexual needs have a more satisfying relationship than those who have sex for less intrinsic reasons, such as to avoid conflict," said Jessica Wood, a Ph.D. student in applied social psychology and lead author of the study.

"Ultimately if you are fulfilling your psychological needs and are satisfied sexually, you are more likely to be happy in your partnership no matter the relationship structure," she added.

"This research shows us that our choice of relationship structure is not an indicator of how happy or satisfied we are in our primary relationships."

While the researchers of the study reported that only 3-7% of people are estimated to be in CNM relationships in North America, YouGov released data in 2016, which revealed that a whopping 51 percent of people under 30 years-old reported that their ideal relationship is completely monogamous, and 60 percent report that the relationship they're in is completely monogamous.

So it's likely we can expect to see more CNM relationships in the future.