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

More Questions About Multiple Passions: Who Has Them, How Many Do People Have, and the Relationship Between Polyamorous Passion and Well-being. Benjamin Schellenberg & Daniel Bailis. Journal of Happiness Studies, Feb 19 2021. https://rd.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10902-021-00369-2

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.

General Discussion

Research relying on the dualistic model of passion has revealed a great deal about the antecedents and consequences of feeling passion toward a single activity (Vallerand 2015). But it is common for people to feel passionate about multiple activities, and little is known about people who have multiple passions in life. The aim of this research was to contribute to this emerging area by focusing on four specific questions about polyamorous passion. In general, our findings add to our understanding of how many passionate activities people have in their lives, the effect of having multiple passions on well-being, and who becomes polyamorously passionate. How many passionate activities do people have?  We addressed this question (Question 1) in all four studies and found that people typically have between 2 and 4 passionate activities in their lives. The number of reported passions was closer to 2 when the number of passionate activities was classified based on passion criteria scores, and closer to 4 when the number of passionate activities was freely reported. These results lead to two conclusions. First, most people are polyamorously passionate; it is more common to be passionate for multiple activities than it is to be passionate about one or no activity. People therefore appear to be very capable of engaging in multiple activities that they enjoy, find valuable and meaningful, devote a great deal of time, energy, and resources, and incorporate into their identities (Vallerand 2015). Second, people typically limit the number of passionate activities they pursue to only a few. There could be many factors that restrict the number of passionate activities people pursue, including limited time and energy that people are able to devote to different activities. The overall message from these findings is that people are unquestionably passionate, and this passion is most often directed toward more than one activity. What is the effect of having multiple passions on well-being? We addressed this question in two ways. In Study 1 we tested whether the relationship between HP and well-being depended on whether HP was directed toward a favorite or fourthfavorite activity (Question 2), and in Studies 2 and 3 we tested if HP for less favored activities predicted well-being beyond what could be predicted by HP for more favored activities (Question 3). In general, the results support the dualistic model by showing that well-being is positively associated with HP, not OP (Vallerand, 2012). But the results contribute to our knowledge about passion by showing that, when directed toward a second-favorite activity, HP contributed to variance in well-being beyond HP for a favorite activity. Having high levels of HP toward two activities may allow people to have two domains in which they can have experiences that contribute to greater well-being, including greater positive affect (Rousseau and Vallerand 2008), flow (Carpentier et al. 2011), and psychological need satisfaction (Verner-Filion et al. 2017). However, the results also showed that HP becomes less predictive of well-being as it is directed toward activities that are less favored. In fact, consistent across Studies 2 and 3, levels of HP did not significantly contribute to the prediction of well-being beyond a second-favorite activity. There must certainly be a limit on the extent to which engaging in passionate activities can enhance well-being (Lyubomirsky et al. 2005), and this research suggests that this benefit is limited to two passionate activities, provided that they are pursued with high HP. Beyond two activities, the benefits of HP for well-being reaches a point of diminishing returns. Perhaps most importantly, the findings also suggest that many adults, especially those higher in openness to experience, consider a greater number of activities to be passions in their lives than they can actually derive increased well-being from, even if those activities are pursued with high HP. We recognize that people may be passionate for numerous activities for good reasons that lie beyond personal well-being, and we would not take the present findings to imply that these people should reduce the number of passions they are trying to pursue. However, we do take the findings to reflect an underlying psychological reality that even in the best-case scenario of consistently high HP, the benefits for well-being do not extend equally and indefinitely to all of the activities one might pursue as passions. Most of these benefits derive from one’s favorite and second-favorite activity. Who has multiple passions?  To address this final question (Question 4), we began by exploring if the big five personality traits were related to passion quantity. The results of all four studies and a mini meta-analysis found consistent evidence in support of a small-to-medium-sized positive association between openness to experience and number of passionate activities. There are many potential reasons why openness predicts a greater number of passionate activities. People with high levels of openness may engage in more or more varied activities (Ihle et al. 2015), thus increasing chances that multiple activities will develop into passionate activities. People with high levels of openness may also find novel activities or experiences more interesting and pleasurable (Fayn et al. 2015), which could facilitate feelings of passion toward them. Testing these and other potential reasons for why openness is linked with a greater number of passionate activities is an important area for future research. Limitations and Future Directions This research is limited by its reliance on self-report assessments and its cross-sectional design. Additional research is needed to replicate these effects using other types of assessments (e.g., interviews, other-reports) or designs (e.g., experimental, longitudinal). There is also evidence that participants recruited on crowdsourcing websites such as Prolific may differ from the general population in several characteristics (see Huff and Tingley 2015). Although a more representative sample was recruited in Study 3, research going forward should focus on other types of samples to address the questions posed in this research. We should also note that the results with HP in Studies 2 and 3 were based on a short, 3-item assessment of HP. Short scales were administered to reduce participant burden and, although others have successfully taken this approach (e.g., Trepanier et al. 2014), our findings should be replicated with the full measure of HP. 

Our view is that this research is another step toward gaining a better understanding of the antecedents and consequences of polyamorous passion. But research in this area is still taking its first steps. Although there is still a great deal to learn, we would like to suggest two routes that additional research can take. A first route is to focus on how passion for multiple activities develops over the life course. For instance, does the number of passionate activities people pursue remain stable, or does this number fluctuate throughout life? Do people go through some periods when they have many passionate activities, and other periods when they have none? It should also be emphasized that all participants in this research, and in the studies reported by Schellenberg and Bailis (2015), were adults, meaning that little is known about how passion for multiple activities develops and changes from childhood to adolescence to adulthood. A second route is to focus on extremes. On one extreme are those who are not passionate for any activity in their lives. Vallerand (2015) reports that between 15% and 25% of people are not passionate for any activity in their lives. The results from this research support these figures. On the other extreme are those who are passionate for many activities. Why do some have passion for many activities in their lives, and others do not have passion for any? Little is known about nonpassionate people (Vallerand 2015), and even less is known about those who are superpolyamorously passionate