More Questions About Multiple Passions: Who Has Them, How Many Do People Have, and the Relationship Between Polyamorous Passion and Well-being

Journal of Happiness Studies (2021)Cite this article

Abstract

People are often passionate toward multiple activities in their lives. However, more has been learned about passion toward any single activity than about passion toward multiple activities. Relying on the dualistic model of passion (Vallerand in The psychology of passion: a dualistic model, Oxford University Press, New York, 2015), this research addressed the antecedents and consequences of polyamorous passion. In three pre-registered studies (total N = 1322) and one mini meta-analysis, we found that (a) people tend to report being passionate for between 2 and 4 activities; (b) harmonious passion becomes a less potent predictor of well-being as it is directed toward less-favored activities; (c) harmonious passion does not contribute to the prediction of well-being beyond a second-favorite activity; and (d) openness to experience is a personality trait that is positively associated with the number of passionate activities that people have in their lives. These results contribute to our understanding of who has multiple passions, how many passionate activities people tend to have, and the relationship between polyamorous passion and well-being.

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Availability of data and materials

Anonymous data files are available for each study on the Open Science Framework at https://osf.io/qkm9e/ (Study 1); https://osf.io/ahjw8/ (Study 2, Sample A); https://osf.io/9xvwj/ (Study 2, Sample B); and https://osf.io/6nepf/ (Study 3).

Code availability

Syntax files are available for each study on the Open Science Framework at https://osf.io/qkm9e/ (Study 1); https://osf.io/ahjw8/ (Study 2, Sample A); https://osf.io/9xvwj/ (Study 2, Sample B); and https://osf.io/6nepf/ (Study 3).

Notes

  1. 1.

    We report McDonald’s omega (ω) as an indicator of internal consistency (see Hayes and Coutts 2020).

  2. 2.

    In our study preregistration, we outlined additional exploratory questions that are addressed in the supplementary file.

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Funding

Funding was provided by the Faculty of Kinesiology and Recreation Management at the University of Manitoba.

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  1. University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada

    Benjamin Schellenberg & Daniel Bailis

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  1. Benjamin Schellenberg
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Correspondence to Benjamin Schellenberg.

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Schellenberg, B., Bailis, D. More Questions About Multiple Passions: Who Has Them, How Many Do People Have, and the Relationship Between Polyamorous Passion and Well-being. J Happiness Stud (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-021-00369-2

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Keywords

  • Dualistic model of passion
  • Harmonious passion
  • Obsessive passion
  • Openness to experience
  • Polyamorous passion