From Zendaya in Challengers to the works of Shakespeare, love triangles in various configurations have long been a staple of romance.
But scientists now believe that some of these famous pairings could actually be a completely new form of sexual attraction.
A new study by researchers at Seattle University argues that “symbiosexual” people are attracted to the energy between established partners more than to either individual.
A large number of study participants reported feeling a sexual and romantic attraction toward a “third force” or “synergy” between existing members of a couple.
Dr Sally Johnston, an associate professor of anthropology and sociology who led the study, says: “We need to rethink the nature of human attraction and desire as exclusively one-on-one experiences.”
Researchers say couples like those featured in the 2024 film Challengers (pictured) may represent a new and previously unstudied form of sexual attraction.
It might seem like sexual and romantic attraction is something that happens between two individual people, regardless of who you are attracted to.
However, in research published in the Sexual Behavior ArchivesDr. Johnston argues that this is not necessarily the case.
She first encountered this phenomenon while researching the treatment of “unicorns” within polyamorous communities.
A “unicorn” is a term generally used to describe a bisexual woman who is willing to enter into a relationship with a heterosexual partner.
Although Dr. Johnston found that so-called unicorns were often mistreated, objectified and ostracized, she also noticed an interesting feature of their relationships.
Researchers say some people are attracted to the “energy” or “third force” between members of an existing couple rather than the individual members themselves (file image)
One of the most famous three-way relationships was that of ‘Tiger King’ Joseph Allen Maldonado, who married John Finlay and Travis Maldonado in a three-way ceremony in 2014.
Dr. Johnston said Psychology:’As part of the polyamorous community, I’ve heard people talk openly about experiencing attraction to established partners.
“I wanted to learn more about this little-studied attraction.”
In this study, Dr. Johnston used data from The Pleasure Study, which surveyed 373 participants about aspects of their sexual and gender identity.
Of those participants, 145 reported that they had felt a feeling of attraction toward two people and their relationship together.
While this figure seems high, it is worth noting that the sample size is small and survey participants are not representative of the general population.
The sample skews heavily white, middle-class and college graduates: more than 90 percent identify as queer and 87.5 percent say they are polyamorous.
Researchers say they first encountered the phenomenon while investigating bisexual individuals who entered into relationships with heterosexual partners, such as Kate Micucci’s character (pictured) in the Netflix show Easy, starring Orlando Bloom and Malin Åkerman.
However, in interviews with 34 of those participants, Dr. Johnston claims to have found consistent evidence of a previously unstudied sexuality.
She says, ‘There is a diverse population of people who experience symbiotic attraction, an attraction to the energy, multidimensionality, and power shared between people in relationships.’
This is a distinct form of person-to-person attraction present in some polyamorous relationships.
For example, in the films Challengers or Professor Marston and Wonder Woman, it is the mutual attraction between each of the three individuals that forms the basis of the relationship.
However, many of those interviewed said they were attracted to the energy and dynamics between members of an established couple, rather than to the individuals.
Of the total respondents, 35 percent said they had felt this attraction sometimes or frequently, while 51 percent said they had felt it sometimes.
Of these, 35 percent said they sometimes or often felt attracted to an established partner, and more than half said they had felt this attraction “sometimes.”
This is a distinct form of attraction in polyamorous relationships where all partners are mutually attracted to each other, such as that depicted in the 2017 film Professor Marston and Wonder Woman.
One participant, named Hayden, said in an interview that she was attracted to couples because of “their cohesiveness.”
Haden added: “You feed off their energy, their mutual attraction… there is an interaction between the couple.”
Another participant, identified only as Sage, said: “I want to be in the middle of that relationship as well. I would like to be included in that relationship as well… I really think my ideal dynamic would be me and a partner.”
When asked what traits might explain their attraction, symbiotic people said they were extroverted, wanted a lot of intimacy, care or attention, and were less likely to experience jealousy.
Films such as Cabaret (pictured) have popularised the idea of ”threesomes” – relationships between three people – but Dr Johnston says symbiotic attraction has been little studied.
One participant, named Eden, said: ‘I have this desire to be desired and I seek a lot of validation, a lot of validation, and when there are a lot of people like that, I feel like, oh, yeah, yeah, I’m doing things right.’
Additionally, some participants explained their attraction by referring to their “sexual openness and homosexuality” and said they were more attracted to queer partners than heterosexual ones.
Dr Johnston says more research is needed to investigate the prevalence of this sexual orientation in the general public.
Furthermore, further research will be needed to explore how symbiotic attraction affects people’s mental health and relationship satisfaction.
Dr. Johnston says, ‘I’m reviewing a follow-up study examining sexual and romantic experiences with partners of people who experience symbiotic attraction.
‘I hope this work will reduce stigma in both monogamous and non-monogamous communities and expand conceptualizations of desire in sexuality studies.’