Multiamory: Rethinking Modern Relationships · Multiamory | Pleasure Podcasts

566 - More Than a Numbers Game: Dating Truths from Feeld's Data Team

·1 hr 16 min·5 clips

Field found 82% of constellations are chain structures, not fully connected groups.

1. Multiamory episode 566 focuses on Field's data about consensual non-monogamy, dating-app behavior, labels, and relationship networks. 2. Hosts Jace, Emily, and Dedeker speak with Field data analyst Cy Dusk and head of UX research Alexandra Kilpatrick, who helped analyze the co-sponsored Open study. 3. The episode asks what Field's member data can reveal about how consensually non-monogamous people date, connect, and describe their relationships. 4. The hosts recap a peer-reviewed survey from Dr. Amy Morse that collected responses from almost 6,000 consensually non-monogamous people. 5. The discussion notes that around 89% of respondents have used or currently use dating apps, and many of them use Field. 6. Cy says Field treats data as 'the voice of our members at scale,' while Alexandra calls it a 'radar' that flags trends for UX research. 7. Cy says the biggest takeaway is that there are as many ways of practicing non-monogamy as there are people, and the community is not a monolith. 8. One specific finding is that 70% of respondents on dating apps use individual profiles and are looking as individuals. 9. The hosts compare that result with older OkCupid-era habits of linking to a partner's profile, which makes the 70% figure feel surprising to them. 10. Cy explains that shared profiles are more common among swingers, while Field's 'constellation' linking of individual profiles is 3 to 4 times more popular than one shared profile. 11. A network-analysis project called 'Polymath,' published on Field's data science blog 'Uncharted Territory,' looks at how people build polycules on the app. 12. Cy says people can link an individual profile with up to five other profiles and assign labels such as partner, dating, friend, or metamour. 13. The main network finding is that 82% of three-person, four-person, and five-person groups are chain structures rather than fully connected groups. 14. Cy links that pattern to a quantitative sense of polysaturation, suggesting many people top out around one to three connected partners. 15. Another pattern is a hub-and-spoke structure in which one central person holds a network together. 16. Cy says those hub members are far more likely to be sexually flexible and women, with bisexual women up to 300% more likely. 17. Alexandra says Field is strong at serving 'torchbearers' who already explore non-traditional relationship structures, but the app needs more nuance for newer users. 18. She describes a dual-track audience of experienced users and people who are 'just dipping their toe in the water,' and says follow-up work will include one-to-one interviews and longitudinal studies. 19. Listeners who follow non-monogamy research, dating-app design, or label politics will get the most out of the episode. 20. Listeners who want a brief celebrity-style relationship chat instead of survey data may skip it.

As heard by us

A careful look at how dating apps shape the words people use for themselves.

Multiamory turns a practical product question into something a little larger: how people name what they want without flattening identity into a checklist.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

When a checkbox cannot hold a whole dating life.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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