Polyamory

Are polyamorous couples happier?

I can see how polyamory could keep the flame alive in a committed relationship. For a lot men (I don't know about women), the idea of your partner sleeping with someone else is kind of hot (but also possibly devastating), and so I can see how it would make sex better. You'd sort of go into "reclamation mode," and probably work harder in bed. There may be evidence to back this up. See Sex at Dawn.

If we look at this in a heteronormative way, it might be that men enjoy reclaiming and women like to be reclaimed.

I think a lot of "monogomous" couples practice a twisted version of this: One partner cheats, the other finds out, and the post-fight sex is great. But probably that isn't very healthy.

Or maybe it's even simpler. If you listen to a great song too many times in a row, it doesn't affect you so strongly. Maybe the same thing is going on here, only you add in the feeling (even it's contradicted by conscious knowledge, as in a polyamorous situation) that you thought you might never be able to listen to that song again. Absence makes the heart grow fonder. You don't know what you've got till it's gone. Whatever psychological mechanisms those aphorisms reveal, maybe polyamory is a way to hack them.