Novel Sexual Behavior and Relationship Quality in Long-Term Mixed-Sex Couples

Little research has been done to examine the impact of sexual novelty on intimacy, passion, and other relationship quality indicators, despite the lay belief that sexual experimentation can rekindle the lost “spark” in relationships. The current study aimed to fill this gap using a pre-post experimental design embedded within a 29-day dyadic diary framework. After two weeks of providing baseline data concerning feelings of intimacy and passion, ease of sexual communication, and sexual and relationship satisfaction, participating mixed-sex couples (N = 128) were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: a control condition in which couples were not asked to engage in novel sexual activities; a sexual position condition in which couples were asked to try out five novel sexual positions; or a vibrator condition in which couples were asked to use a novel vibrator while engaging in five new sexual positions. Couples then provided assessments of the same relationship quality indicators that had been baselined over the course of two weeks. Passion was significantly higher among participants in the vibrator condition than participants in the control condition immediately following the intervention but declined back to baseline levels by the end of study. No other differences in the relationship quality indicators were found across the conditions. These results suggest that sexual novelty may have short-term effects on passion, though these effects are transitory and unrelated to other aspects of sexual and relationship quality.