You have full access to this open access article. Experiencing it is highly desired in communities practicing consensual non-monogamy CNM , especially polyamory. This article presents the results of a study on compersion on Polish CNM individuals. The analyses were performed on data obtained from individuals in CNM relationships and on a comparative group of people in monogamous relationships.
The results of the confirmatory factor analyses suggested that the three-factor model of the original COMPERSe version did not fit well, leading to further revisions that resulted in a 7-item, two-factor solution with excellent fit, excellent internal consistency, strong divergent and convergent validity, and excellent testβretest stability. The CNM individuals were found to have higher scores on compersion and cognitive empathy and were also less jealous than the monogamous participants.
It was also revealed that compersion indirectly predicted relationship satisfaction by decreasing jealousy and that compersion was, in turn, predicted by cognitive empathy. However, when polyamorous and open relationships were analyzed separately, compersion predicted relationship satisfaction directly, but only in polyamorous relationships; meanwhile, in open relationships, satisfaction was directly predicted by cognitive empathy.
In Western society, monogamy is one of the most strongly held norms Conley et al. Fairbrother et al. As reported in the study by Flicker et al. Although the study by Flicker et al. However, it is worth mentioning that the term itself can be defined in various ways as different people put emphasis on its different aspects e. International research on compersion is only now gaining momentum.
Up until recently e. CNM and related phenomena are even more niche topics in Polish research. Only one study Frycz, used a quantitative procedure in which compersion was measured using an unvalidated questionnaire Duma, Thus, in Poland, there is certainly a demand for a new line of research on CNM, as well as a validated and reliable tool for measuring compersion.
