Marriage is between two people, not three: Complexities of modern attitudes toward marriage in the US Gayle Kaufman and D’Lane Compton, Davidson College and University of New Orleans

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York Sociology Seminar

Attitudes toward same-sex marriage in the US have shifted quickly over the last few decades (Kaufman & Compton, 2020).

In this talk, Gayle and D'Lane examine different dimensions of marriage attitudes to understand whether support for marriage equality suggests a broader shift in who can marry and what marriage means. Using data from a national probability-based panel of US adults, they examine attitudes among 2,806 American adults. They use cluster analysis to identify groups of people based on their attitudes toward three dimensions of marriage – general attitudes, attitudes toward same-sex marriage, and attitudes toward polyamorous marriage.

Their findings show that marriage attitudes cluster around three groups. The first group, which they term the Traditionals, holds positive views of marriage but does not support marriage between same-sex couples or polyamorous unions (28.5%). The second group, which we call the Duplets, holds positive views of marriage between two people – including both cross-sex and same-sex couples – but opposes polyamorous marriage (37.4%). The third group, which we name the Ambivalents, has neutral views about marriage generally, supports marriage between same-sex couples, and neither supports nor opposes polyamorous marriage (34.1%). Gayle and D'Lane will explore these three groups and compare across demographic characteristics, particularly sexual orientation, in this talk.

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