Are humans naturally monogamous?

CrowdScience

BBC

Science, Technology

4.8 • 985 Ratings

🗓️ 14 March 2025

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

CrowdScience listener Alina is in a relationship with a polyamorous partner and is very happy with this arrangement, which got her thinking – why is monogamy so often the norm in human societies?

Presenter Caroline Steel goes on an anthropological odyssey to figure out where this drive to find a single partner - and stick with them - comes from.

What can science tell us about how human relationships developed, and whether having one or many partners is more 'natural'?

Evolutionary biologist Kit Opie of the University of Bristol joins us at London Zoo to help us understand the mating systems of our closest primate relatives.

To find out how polygamy developed in some parts of the world we speak to anthropologist Katie Starkweather of the University of Illinois Chicago.

And we learn about the chemistry of bonding from Sarah Blumenthal at Emory University, who explains how the brains of prairie voles may give us clue about the neurochemicals which shape human relationships.

Presenter: Caroline Steel Producers: Priya Sippy, Ben Motley and Imaan Moin Editor: Cathy Edwards Production Co-ordinator: Ishmael Soriano Studio Manager: Steve Greenwood

(Image: Dancing wedding cake figurines Credit: Peter Dazeley via Getty Images)

Transcript

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0:00.0	He tells her that she will be sent to France as a secret agent, and if she's caught, she's going to be shot.
0:09.3	I'm Helen Obalam Carter, and this is history's secret heroes, where I shine a light on extraordinary stories from World War II.
0:17.6	What they wanted was someone to get themselves arrested and sent to Auschwitz.
0:22.0	Tales of deception, an incredible acts of resistance and courage.
0:26.3	She was a born soldier.
0:27.4	She's a freedom fighter in its widest sense.
0:29.9	The brand new series of History's Secret Heroes.
0:32.8	Listen first on BBC Salons.
0:36.2	I'm Alina.
0:37.3	I'm from Romania, originally. And I now live in London. I've lived in London since 2010.
0:43.2	This is crowd science from the BBC World Service. I'm Caroline Steele, and this is listener Alina.
0:50.2	I recently met someone, we've been going out for five months, and they're poly.
0:58.1	They've got one other partner and they kind of go on dates and see other people.
1:03.7	They've been poli their entire life.
1:05.5	So that's kind of a new world I'm exploring now.
1:08.8	Poly is short for polyamorous, meaning having or being open to having multiple partners,
1:15.3	instead of just one, aka monogamy.
1:18.3	This is the show that answers your science questions.
1:21.8	And this episode, our question comes from Alina.
1:25.6	So I just wanted to know, like, why have we settled as a society on monogamy?
1:30.5	Is it more beneficial from an evolutionary perspective?
1:34.7	Why is polyamoros of taboo?
	...

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