Monogamous And Nonmonogamous Men's Brains Respond Differently To Romantic Images

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Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin brought 20 sexually active heterosexual men (aged 22-50, average = 34) into the lab, laid them down in an fMRI scanner and showed them different images, including sexual (e.g., naked people having vaginal intercourse), romantic (e.g. fully clothed people hugging or hand holding) or neutral (e.g., landscapes or people barbecuing).

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A pre-study interview classified 10 of these men as highly monogamous: They had fewer than five sexual partners in their lifetime, never dated more than one person at a time, had never cheated on a partner and reported fantasizing about women other than their current partner less than once per month. In contrast, the other 10 men were similar in age but highly nonmonogamous: They had relationships with multiple partners (including both cheating and consensual nonmonogamy), preferred having more than one partner at a time and reported a median of 30 lifetime sexual partners (ranging from 15 to 200).

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Results showed no differences in brain activation between the monogamous and nonmonogamous men when they were watching sexual images

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However, the brains of the two groups differed quite a bit when it came to romantic stimuli. Monogamous men had increased activation in limbic and reward-related areas of the brain

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Furthermore, among monogamous men, areas that were active when viewing romantic pictures were still active while viewing sexual pictures, indicating that sexual and romantic stimuli are closely related for them. By contrast, nonmonogamous men’s brain showed additional activity during romantic stimuli in several regions of the cortex that were not active during the sexual photos

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“It seems nonmonogamous men are processing these images at a higher cognitive level instead of responding mostly with the ‘reptile brain’ (as Dan Savage would say)

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Past studies have found that people in polyamorous relationships have higher testosterone than people in monogamous relationships

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