Societal changes over recent decades have drastically transformed the frequency and manner in which people are exposed to attractive alternative relationship partners, arguably resulting in such alternatives posing a greater threat to committed relationships now than ever before. Yet despite a growing need for novel research on attractive alternatives, research on this topic has failed to account for such changes and thus is growing stagnant. Specifically, although interdependence perspectives and supporting research have consistently and robustly demonstrated that (a) attractive alternatives threaten committed relationships and (b) committed partners protect their relationships by devaluing such alternatives, research has yet to examine how the changing nature of attractive alternatives might affect these processes. To this end, the present article first reviews foundational theory and research that guided the study of attractive alternatives and then highlights how recent societal changes (e.g., technology that increases access to attractive alternatives, increasingly diverse relationship types, the emerging desire to remain single) diverge from this research and thus warrant new directions. We encourage researchers to expand how they study attractive alternatives and to ultimately reignite research on this increasingly important topic.

中文翻译：

---

浪漫关系中有吸引力的替代方案的变化趋势：最近的社会变化迫使未来研究的新方向

近几十年来的社会变化极大地改变了人们接触有吸引力的替代关系伙伴的频率和方式，可以说导致这种替代关系对现在的忠诚关系构成了比以往任何时候都更大的威胁。然而，尽管对有吸引力的替代品的新研究的需求不断增长，但关于这一主题的研究未能解释这些变化，因此越来越停滞不前。具体而言，尽管相互依赖的观点和支持性研究一致有力地证明 (a) 有吸引力的替代品威胁忠诚的关系，以及 (b) 忠诚的合作伙伴通过贬低此类替代品来保护他们的关系，但研究尚未研究有吸引力的替代品的变化性质可能如何影响这些过程。为此，本文首先回顾了指导有吸引力的替代方案研究的基础理论和研究，然后强调了最近的社会变化（例如，增加获得有吸引力的替代方案的技术、日益多样化的关系类型、新出现的保持单身的愿望）与这项研究的不同从而保证新的方向。我们鼓励研究人员扩展他们研究有吸引力的替代品的方式，并最终重新点燃对这个日益重要的主题的研究。新出现的保持单身的愿望）与这项研究背道而驰，因此需要新的方向。我们鼓励研究人员扩展他们研究有吸引力的替代品的方式，并最终重新点燃对这个日益重要的主题的研究。新出现的保持单身的愿望）与这项研究背道而驰，因此需要新的方向。我们鼓励研究人员扩展他们研究有吸引力的替代品的方式，并最终重新点燃对这个日益重要的主题的研究。