What is the difference between swinging and polyamory?
Swinging emphasizes sexual variety with the primary couple as the anchor relationship; polyamory emphasizes maintaining multiple loving, romantic relationships at once. Most swingers do not seek emotional or romantic entanglement with their play partners, and many follow a "no falling in love" rule. Polyamorous people, by contrast, often build secondary partnerships that include shared time, planning, and emotional intimacy. The two communities overlap — some people do both — but the labels signal different defaults.