research topics for love relationships

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• Published: 31 January 2024

A decade of love: mapping the landscape of romantic love research through bibliometric analysis

• Yixue Han 1 ,
• Yulin Luo 1 ,
• Zhuohong Chen 1 ,
• Nan Gao 1 ,
• Yangyang Song 1 &
• Shen Liu 1  

Humanities and Social Sciences Communications volume  11 , Article number:  187 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

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Given the limited availability of bibliometric and visual analysis on the topic of romantic love, the primary objective of the current study is to fill this gap by conducting a comprehensive visual analysis of relevant literature. Through this analysis, the current study aimed to uncover current research trends and identify potential future directions in the field of romantic love. The current study’s search criteria were met by an impressive 6858 publications found in the Web of Science database for the period between 2013 and 2022. A thorough analysis was conducted on the bibliographic visualization of the authors, organizations, countries, references, and keywords. Over time, there has been a remarkable surge in the number of significant publications. Among the authors in the field of romantic love, Emily A. Impett has emerged as the most prolific. The Journal of Social and Personal Relationships is indeed one of the top journals that has published a significant number of articles on the topic of romantic love. During the preceding decade, the University of California System emerged as a prominent producer of publications centered around romantic love, solidifying the United States’ position as a dominant player in this field. In recent times, there has been a significant surge in the popularity of keywords such as “same-sex,” “conflict resolution,” and “social relationships” within academic literature. These topics have experienced a burst of attention, as evidenced by a substantial increase in references and citations. Through the use of visualization maps and analysis of key publications, the current study offers a comprehensive overview of the key concepts and potential avenues for future research in the field of romantic love. Gaining a deep understanding of the complex dynamics and societal implications of romantic love has been instrumental in formulating policies that embody increased compassion and support. As a result, these policies have played a pivotal role in fostering resilient familial ties and contributing to the enduring stability and prosperity of our social fabric.

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Introduction, the development course of romantic love.

Romantic love, as defined by Hatfield and Rapson ( 1987 ) as an intense longing for union with another, has long been recognized as a driving force behind some of humanity’s most remarkable achievements. Studies by Bartels and Zeki ( 2000 ) and the work of Fehr ( 2013 , 2015 ) have further emphasized its profound impact. Previous research has suggested that romantic love has a crucial role in the development and maintenance of romantic relationships. It involves a transition from the significant investment of time and attention in the initial stages to enhanced communication and satisfaction in committed partnerships (Mizrahi et al. 2022 ). However, recent research has shown that in the United States, the divorce rate has consistently remained at historically high levels. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ( 2017 ), ~40–50% of first marriages end in divorce. In recent times, there has been a trend toward shorter and more prevalent romantic relationships. Alirezanejad ( 2022 ) found that different generations of women have maintained distinct expectations and experiences when it comes to love. Additionally, the significance of commitment in romantic relationships has witnessed a decline. These findings also indicate that there are additional factors at play that influence the dynamics between romantic love and the duration of relationships. The triangular theory of love, being one of the most widely used theories on romantic love, proposes that romantic love consists of three components: intimacy, passion, and an absence of commitment, alongside a willingness to invest resources without expecting reciprocation (Jimenez-Picon et al. 2022 ). The Love Attitude Scale (LAS) developed by Clyde and Susan Hendrick has been a significant contribution in the study of romantic love using psychometric methods. Tobore ( 2020 ) introduced a comprehensive four-fold framework that aims to elucidate the dynamics of how love evolves and diminishes. This framework includes the elements of attraction, empathy or connection, trust, and respect. As a result, the enigmatic and unique nature of romantic love has captivated the attention of scholars from various disciplines, including psychology, biology, sociology, and neuroscience. These scholars have conducted extensive research and investigations into the complexities of romantic love. Thus, the present study conducted a comprehensive and in-depth analysis and discourse on romantic love, spanning multiple research domains. Additionally, the publication emphasized the influence of romantic love on positive emotions as well as its association with various negative behaviors. Furthermore, it underscored the importance of utilizing bibliometric analysis as a valuable approach to study and understand romantic love.

The research directions of romantic love in different disciplines

Psychologists have focused on exploring the relationship between romantic love and negative emotions in individuals with mental illnesses. Lafontaine et al. ( 2020 ) found a correlation between romantic love insecurity, specifically anxiety and avoidance, and the occurrence of intimate partner violence (IPV). This pattern of behavior was shown to undermine relationships and diminish individuals’ sense of security. Moreover, individuals with schizophrenia and other mental health conditions faced significant challenges in building and sustaining healthy interpersonal connections, partly due to the enduring stigma associated with mental illness (Budziszewska et al. 2020 ). Biological researchers have delved into the physiological activities and responses associated with romantic love. Furthermore, biological research has demonstrated that communication plays a crucial role in enhancing romantic relationships by facilitating physiological and behavioral adaptations between partners. For instance, a study by Zeevi et al. ( 2022 ) revealed that men and women in a romantic relationship can enhance their romantic interest in each other by synchronizing their skin electrical activities and modifying their behavior. These findings suggest that the social adaptation of the sympathetic nervous system and motor behavior play a critical role in the romantic attraction between partners. Furthermore, recent biological research conducted by Kerr et al. ( 2022 ) has discovered a correlation between unsuitable adult attachment in romantic relationships and the interpersonal circumplex, which is a component of personality pathology. Furthermore, a sociological study on pair-bonding conducted by Fletcher et al. ( 2015 ) highlighted that romantic love is intricately linked to the evolution and survival of Homo sapiens, making it a biologically significant function with profound evolutionary implications. Neuroscientists have examined the activation of different brain regions that are triggered by romantic love activities. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has emerged as a prominent technique for studying the neurobiological basis of love. Researchers such as Acevedo et al. ( 2020 ) and Chester et al. ( 2021 ) have utilized fMRI to investigate the neural correlates of romantic love and gain insights into the brain mechanisms underlying this complex phenomenon. Neuroscientists have identified specific brain regions associated with love, including the insula and anterior cingulate cortex. These regions are involved in the processing of emotional experiences related to valued objects. A study by Bartels and Zeki ( 2000 ) highlighted the involvement of these brain regions in the experience of romantic love, shedding light on the neural mechanisms underlying the emotional aspects of love. The activation of reward-related areas in the brain, particularly those rich in oxytocin, has been observed in individuals experiencing love. Studies by Acevedo et al. ( 2012 ) and Bartels and Zeki ( 2004 ) have shown that regions associated with reward processing, such as the ventral tegmental area and nucleus accumbens, are involved in the experience of romantic love. Indeed, the involvement of the reward system in love has surpassed expectations. During the initial stages of romantic love, research conducted by Fisher et al. ( 2010 ) has shown that reward-related brain regions, including the bilateral ventral tegmental areas, are activated more strongly compared to the later stages of passion.

The social impact of romantic love

Undoubtedly, falling in love has a profound impact on people’s daily lives, as highlighted by research conducted by Quintard et al. ( 2021 ). Falling in love has been associated with enhanced well-being and has been correlated with fervor, activity, pleasure, and other positive emotions, as noted in research conducted by Langeslag ( 2022 ). However, it is important to acknowledge that the pitfalls of romantic love are often overlooked. Research, such as that conducted by Lonergan et al. ( 2022 ), has found associations between romantic love and criminal activity as well as psychological disorders. Additionally, studies by Aron et al. ( 2005 ), Merritt et al. ( 2022 ) and Li et al. ( 2022 ) have highlighted the presence of unpleasant affective states such as hyperarousal, anxiety, and depression in the context of romantic love. In recent decades, romantic love has undergone significant transformations that have had a substantial impact on both personal and societal life, as emphasized by research conducted by Reis et al. ( 2013 ).

The necessity of bibliometric analysis

Bibliometrics is a field that encompasses the quantitative study of documents, aiming to provide researchers with insights into academic, technological, and scientific advancements (William and Concepción 2001 ). The methodology utilized a range of techniques, including author analysis, concept mapping, clustering, factor analysis, and citation analysis, to investigate historical data and assist scholars in identifying significant trends and emerging directions within their disciplines (Daim et al. 2006 ; Hou et al. 2022 ). The term “bibliometrics” was coined by the distinguished British scientist Allen Richard in 1969, replacing the previously employed term “statistical bibliography.” In recent years, there has been a surging interest in this approach, with a growing number of researchers incorporating it into their work. Bibliometric analysis has been employed in various research domains, including the study of romantic love. These analyses offer valuable insights into the research areas that have been investigated, as well as potential future trends, challenges, and opportunities in the field. To the best of our knowledge, there have been limited previous publications that have specifically analyzed romantic love based on the triangular theory of love development and explored the concept across different disciplines.

In the current study, we utilized state-of-the-art analytical tools, including CiteSpace (6.2.R2), VOSviewer (1.6.18), Microsoft Excel (2019), and Scimago Graphica (1.0.26), in conjunction with the most recent data obtained from the Web of Science (WOS) core collection database. These tools allowed us to conduct a comprehensive bibliometric and visual analysis of publications related to romantic love published in the last decade. By employing these cutting-edge tools and leveraging the extensive data available from WOS, we aimed to gain valuable insights into the research landscape surrounding romantic love during this specific time frame. Our study aimed to achieve several objectives. First, we sought to identify the current research hotspots and trends within the field of romantic love. Second, we aimed to conduct an in-depth examination of visual maps and seminal articles, providing a comprehensive overview of the literature.

Material and methods

Data acquisition and search strategy.

The Web of Science (WOS) platform served as a valuable resource, containing a vast collection of over 9000 significant academic articles. This database stands as one of the oldest and most comprehensive citation index records, encompassing a wide range of disciplines, including social science, engineering technology, biomedicine, arts and humanities, and various other subjects. Since its establishment in 1900, the Web of Science (WOS) has served as a cornerstone of scholarly research and has wielded significant influence within academic circles (Ellegaard and Wallin 2015 ). The quantitative analysis feature of the platform facilitated the acquisition of various types of information related to scholarly publications. This included data on the annual number of papers published, papers published by state or region, popular journals within specific disciplines, frequently utilized publishing houses, and highly downloaded and cited literature. Indeed, references that receive multiple citations play a crucial role in providing a robust foundation for the study of romantic love, as emphasized by Xu et al. ( 2022 ).

The subject matter of romantic love and its interrelation with romantic relationships has a profound impact on the satisfaction and longevity of love between individuals, as highlighted by Zagefka ( 2022 ). Passionate love is a fundamental concept within romantic relationships, as emphasized by Mizrahi et al. ( 2022 ). Sternberg’s triangular theory of love stands as one of the most substantial and frequently referenced frameworks for understanding love, as noted by Sorokowski et al. ( 2021 ). To comprehensively explore the topic, the search strategy incorporated the inclusion of the following elements: The topic could encompass “romantic love,” OR “passionate love,” OR “romantic relationship,” OR “triangular theory of love.”‘ The search was conducted within the Web of Science Core Collection database, which covers the time period from 2013 to 2022. The database indexes the Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED) and Social Science Citation Index-Expanded (SSCI-EXPANDED). The search was limited to publications written in the English language. To refine the search and focus on specific types of publications, certain categories were excluded from the search results. These excluded categories included early access, book chapters, proceeding papers, data papers, and retracted publications. By excluding these categories, the search aimed to prioritize reviews and articles, which are typically considered primary sources of scholarly information. As a result of these refined search criteria, a total of 6858 relevant items were identified and included in the analysis.

The retrieval strategy employed in this research was designed to maintain the integrity and impartiality of the search process (see Fig. 1 ).

To ensure that the search results were not influenced by daily database updates, all searches were conducted on a single day, specifically on March 26, 2023.

Analysis tool

For bibliometric analysis, the current study utilized a powerful combination of CiteSpace (6.2.R2), VOSviewer (1.6.18), Microsoft Excel (2019), and Scimago Graphica (1.0.26). These state-of-the-art software tools seamlessly integrated insights from scientometrics, information science, computer science, and other related fields to generate highly intuitive and informative visual maps. These maps revealed the development trajectory and structural underpinnings of scientific research. Indeed, each of these four software applications held unique and irreplaceable significance, excelling in specific domains of bibliometric analysis. Excel, for instance, demonstrated unparalleled proficiency in the intuitive transformation of charts. CiteSpace specialized in the clustering of topics and the delineation of the spatio-temporal background of words. VOSviewer played a pivotal role in both displaying and analyzing keywords, leveraging its distinctive capabilities. Lastly, Scimago Graphica contributed significantly to the geographical perspective of statistical analysis, offering insights that were unmatched in their comprehensiveness. Collectively, these tools not only proved indispensable but also brought their individual strengths to the forefront, contributing uniquely to the overall analytical landscape. Indeed, the Excel program was commonly employed to comprehensively analyze key data points such as the number of published papers, frequency of citations, and matched published documents. It was also employed to synthesize all the information for creating intuitive visual representations (Fig. 2 ) to illustrate the trends in the number of publications, citations, and their corresponding fitting functions during different periods. The use of CiteSpace in the current study was focused on highlighting the most salient occurrence burst on a timeline map and detecting the centrality of romantic love studies (Zhang et al. 2022a ). In order to attain a comprehensive understanding of the progress in romantic love research, an evolutionary analysis was undertaken, utilizing CiteSpace’s burst function. Co-occurrence analysis on pertinent keywords is another valuable method used to gain insights into the relationships and patterns among keywords in a specific research domain. Indeed, the analyses conducted, including the evolutionary analysis and co-occurrence analysis, facilitated an examination of the prevailing themes and trends of romantic love across different generations from a chronological perspective. VOSviewer, a powerful visualization tool, was utilized in the current study to portray the borders of romantic love with varying color clusters. It also facilitated the exploration of the co-occurrence of authors, institutions, and keywords associated with romantic love. The circles of various colors and sizes were used to represent the occurrence frequency of distinct cluster words and different keywords, respectively. The examination of keywords in the current study, augmented by chart analysis, delved into a more profound, comprehensive, and scientific level. Scimago Graphica 1.0.18, a tool designed for visualizing international collaboration, proved highly effective in the current study for facilitating the visualization of international collaboration (He et al. 2022 ). By organically combining the atlas and the world map, researchers were able to intuitively observe differences in the number of publications across various countries and the extent of national collaboration between different regions.

The trend exhibited an upward trajectory, with an estimated 938 publications in 2021, compared to 502 publications in 2013. Notably, the annual publication volume in the field of romantic love had reached its peak in 2021, as indicated by the fitted equation. However, it is worth mentioning that there was a slight decrease in publication numbers during specific periods. From 2017 to 2018, the annual publication count declined from 644 to 608. Similarly, from 2019 to 2020, there was a minor decrease from 872 to 861 publications annually. Additionally, there was a slight decline from 2021 to 2022, with the number of publications decreasing from 938 to 817 annually.

In the previous study, a comprehensive range of factors was considered to provide a thorough and scientifically rigorous atlas analysis of romantic love research. These factors included the annual publication rate, citation counts, H-index, impact factor, centrality, and occurrence/citation burst. An increase in the volume of publications can indicate the growth of a field and provide insights into future research directions (Wang 2016 ). While the number of citations a paper receives may not directly measure an author’s academic influence, it can indicate the recognition of the author’s work by peers worldwide. The “H-index” was a tool for evaluating academic influence, where a researcher with an “H-index” of 10 had 10 papers that had been cited at least 10 times (Wang et al. 2021 ). Since its inception in the 1950s, the impact factor has been widely regarded as a prominent index for ranking scientific literature. It has become an emblem of the prestige and significance of journals and authors in determining the relevance of a journal (Oosthuizen and Fenton 2014 ). For the current study, Journal Citation Reports (JCR) were utilized to calculate impact factors (2021). The centrality of research objects can indeed reflect their impact on the entire field, with greater centrality indicating a greater representation of homologous study content within a subject area. In the study conducted by Gao et al. ( 2021 ), betweenness centrality scores were adjusted to the range of [0, 1]. Specifically, if the betweenness centrality score of a main keyword exceeded 0.10, it was considered to indicate the significance of the study target. In the study conducted by Xu et al. ( 2022 ), the concept of a “burst term” was utilized to refer to an unexpected term that emerged in the research, potentially indicating new directions or orientations discovered during the investigation. The Kleinberg burst detection method, which is implemented in the CiteSpace software, was employed to identify these burst terms and highlight them as indicators of frontier research.

Publication outputs

A total of 6858 records met the search criteria. As depicted in Fig. 2 , the number of annual publications in the field of romantic love has shown a consistent upward trend since 2013. This increase is accompanied by a corresponding surge in citation counts, as indicated by the fitted equation. Citation counts in the field of romantic love have also experienced a significant upsurge since 2013, with an approximate 90-fold increase by 2022. Furthermore, based on current trends and fitting curves, the number of studies in this field is expected to continue rising, with an increasing number of researchers focusing on this topic.

Distribution by journals

The current study retrieved a total of 6858 records from 1251 journals, with ~33.79% of the material published by 20 publications that released more than 50 papers in this field. The top ten journals, accounting for 23.78% (92–400) of all papers published, had an average publication count of 134 papers per journal (see Table 1 ). Among them, the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships (400 publications, IF 2021 = 2.681) had the highest number of papers on romantic love research, followed by Personal Relationships (189 publications, IF 2021 = 1.528), and Personality and Individual Differences (185 publications, IF 2021 = 3.950). Notably, the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology was the most influential professional core journal in this field, boasting the highest impact factor (8.460). Both European and American journals have made significant contributions to this field, with the United States and the United Kingdom accounting for 40% and 50% of the top 10 journal publishing countries/regions, respectively. The impact factors of the top 10 most-published journals ranged from 1.528 to 8.460, with an average of 4.070. It is worth noting that publishing romantic love-related articles in high-impact journals remains challenging.

Distribution by authors and research areas

A staggering 15,088 authors contributed to the total number of papers. In Fig. 3 , the collaborative efforts of the writers were illustrated through a network map, where the connections between the nodes signified their collaborative affiliations. Among the top three clusters, the red cluster included authors Joseph P. Allen, Martine Hebert, and Marie-France Lafontaine, who had converged due to their shared research interests in adolescent dating violence and aggression (Cenat et al. 2022 ; Niolon et al. 2015 ). The blue cluster consisted of authors Frank D. Fincham, James K. Monk, and Ashley K. Randall, who had explored the interplay between relationship satisfaction, stress, and relationship maintenance in romantic relationships (Randall and Bodenmann 2017 ; Vennum et al. 2017 ). The yellow cluster included authors Todd K. Shackelford, William J. Chopik, and Justin K. Mogilski, whose work focused on the topic of polygamy (Moors et al. 2019 ; Sela et al. 2017 ). Martine Hebert, Todd K. Shackelford, Frank D. Fincham, and Emily A. Impett emerged as the cooperative network’s central nodes, underscoring their crucial role in advancing research on romantic love.

The authors’ cooperative network was partitioned into eight distinct clusters.

Table 2 provided a rundown of the most productive authors, with their published works ranging from 28 to 74 publications, averaging 41. The H-index, a yardstick for measuring academic influence, was employed to assess their impact. Notably, Emily A. Impett emerged as the dominant force within the cohort of scholars dedicated to the study of romantic love, having authored the most papers among the group (74 publications, H-index = 38). Additionally, Nickola C. Overall (42 publications, H-index = 19) and Amy Muise (60 publications, H-index = 30) also featured prominently as leading contributors to the field.

Table 3 and Fig. 4 displayed the number of publications in different fields of study related to the topic of romantic love. Notably, publications in the fields of biology, neuroscience, and economics were also included in Table 3 . The humanities were increasingly collaborating on romantic love research. Furthermore, the topic of romantic love was gaining popularity in the fields of psychology and sociology.

The field of psychology, including psychology and psychiatry, was significantly ahead. The field of sociology encompassed various topics in the social sciences, including sociology and social work.

Distribution by country and institution

A total of 6858 publications had been published and disseminated to 104 countries and regions worldwide. In the country analysis, Scimago Graphica had been used to explore the geographic collaboration network of participating nations. The participants of the current study were drawn from 104 different countries spanning Asia, Africa, Europe, North America, and South America, with Europe exhibiting the highest level of overall engagement, underscoring the global trend toward collaboration. The United States and the United Kingdom had demonstrated the greatest degree of cooperation. Notably, China, South Africa, Spain, Italy, France, and other countries with high cooperation densities had formed the most significant multi-center cooperation network in this field (see Fig. 5 ). Figure 6 illustrated international collaboration.

By leveraging Scimago Graphica, it was possible to merge geographical perspectives with national publications and collaborative relationships, providing an intuitive and scientific method to illuminate the various conditions of countries involved in the research on romantic love.

The largest blue cluster was comprised of the United States, China, Switzerland, Turkey, and Norway, demonstrating collaboration across the Americas, Europe, and East Asia.

Table 4 outlined the specifics of the top ten countries in the landscape of romantic love research. The United States topped the list with 4092 publications, followed by Canada with 802 publications, and the United Kingdom with 540 publications. It is noteworthy that the majority of publications were disseminated from high-income countries, aligning with the overall prosperity of those nations. Most papers were disseminated in high-income countries. This trend might have stemmed from the overarching principles governing scientific inquiry, or it could be attributed to authors in these nations having the freedom to engage in research spanning areas not necessarily centered on economic growth. However, within the realm of general well-being, this emerges as a pertinent concern. Primarily, high-income countries historically boasted more affluent reservoirs of research resources, encompassing financial backing, cutting-edge equipment, and a pool of adept talent. This affluence empowered researchers in these nations to embark on a diverse array of investigations, spanning domains intricately tied to economic growth and extending to those delving into broader realms such as general well-being and social development. The discernible divergence in resource allocation likely contributed to the disproportionate prevalence of publications in high-income countries. Secondarily, the scrutiny of whether the romantic love research domain intricately correlates with economic growth warrants profound contemplation. At times, the merit of research doesn’t solely reside in its potential to spur short-term economic growth but extends to its impact on the overarching well-being and sustainable evolution of society. High-income countries, historically oriented toward prioritizing protracted social well-being, manifested a proclivity to endorse research that, while not directly contributing to economic growth, played an indispensable role in the comprehensive development of society. Institutional collaboration was vividly portrayed in Fig. 7 , which consisted of six clusters. A total of 3328 institutions contributed to the 6858 articles on romantic love. Of the top 10 organizations, universities occupied the top spot (as indicated in Table 5 ), with the State University System of Florida (246 publications), the University System of Ohio (248 publications), and the University of California System (365 publications) leading the pack. Notably, nine out of the top 10 institutions hailed from the United States, which was a testament to the country’s exceptional research prowess in this field.

The red cluster denoted collaboration among Florida State University, University of Michigan, University of Washington, and Indiana University; the green cluster represented Ohio State University, University of Basel, and Nanyang Technological University; while the blue cluster embodied York University, the University of Toronto, Northwestern University, and Carleton University. Northwestern University, Florida State University, the University of Minnesota, and the University of Toronto were the major nodes in the cooperative network.

Analysis of references

Reference analysis played a critical role in bibliometric research, as the references with the highest citation bursts formed the foundation of knowledge at the forefront of research (Fitzpatrick 2005 ). In Fig. 8 , the current study presented the most relevant references on romantic love, which had experienced a surge in citations over the past decade. By the end of 2022, Mikulincer and Shaver’s ( 2016 ) articles had seen a significant increase in their citation counts, with the highest spike (14.35) observed in 2016, followed by Wincentak et al.’s ( 2017 ) studies (9.9). These two studies had been widely cited over the years and accurately captured the latest trends in romantic love research.

These references were represented by red and green bars, indicating their frequent and less frequent citation, respectively.

Mikulincer and Shaver’s ( 2016 ) delved into the causes and methods for measuring individual differences in adult attachment, as well as how to modify attachment styles, using several empirical studies. Additionally, they explored the cutting-edge genetics, neurological, and hormonal substrates of attachment, expanding the impact model’s depiction of how the attachment system functioned. In the study, Wincentak et al. ( 2017 ) discussed the prevalence of dating violence among adolescents of different genders using a meta-analysis method, while also examining the potential regulatory effects of age, demographics, and measurement. Research has shown that in adolescent dating violence, the crime rate of women was significantly lower than that of men. Based on the analysis of these articles, current research trends in romantic love included adult attachment and the examination of adolescents’ irrational beliefs about love and the resulting adverse consequences, such as dating violence.

Analysis of keywords

Keyword burst refers to keywords that have shown a sharp increase in frequency over time, enabling the assessment of the current study focus in this area and reflecting the development pattern of future research. The current study extracted the burst terms of various years in the area of romantic love to obtain the burst terms of various years in the area of romantic love (see Fig. 9 ). As we’ve seen, the field had a diverse range of research interests. By the end of 2022, the three words with the highest peak were “same-sex” (2020–2022), “conflict resolution” (2020–2022), and “social relationships” (2020–2022):

Same-sex: in a society that valued heterosexual relationships, same-sex relationships were often met with shame and stigma, leading to additional pressures uniquely linked to their sexual orientation and partnership (Feinstein et al. 2018 ; Rostosky and Riggle 2017 ). Moreover, the online conduct of gay individuals has been demonstrated to have significant implications for their sexual risk behaviors and emotional well-being in romantic relationships (Zhang et al. 2022b ). The development of effective dual interventions has been shown to enhance the health and well-being of same-sex couples and their families. These interventions should also educate parents about the potential negative effects of heteronormative assumptions and attitudes on their children’s positive adolescent development (Pearson and Wilkinson 2013 ).

Conflict resolution: previous research has shown the irony that a person’s favorite individual, such as their romantic partner, is often the very person with whom they engage in destructive behavior during conflicts, making this destructive response one of the most challenging issues in relationships (Alonso-Ferres et al. 2021 ). As a result, it was critical to effectively resolve conflicts in a constructive manner. The emergence of computer-mediated communication (CMC) as a novel conflict resolution approach prompted researchers to explore this matter. Ultimately, they discovered that there were no differences in pain, anger, and conflict resolution levels between face-to-face and CMC discussions (Pollmann et al. 2020 ). Another study focused on neural activity during conflict resolution, revealing that mediation could enhance conflict resolution and was linked to increased activity in the nucleus accumbens, a crucial area of the brain’s reward circuit (Rafi et al. 2020 ). The finding emphasizes the importance of identifying neural mechanisms that could enhance conflict resolution and improve relationship outcomes. By exploring various conflict resolution approaches and associated neural mechanisms, researchers can facilitate a deeper understanding of how to successfully resolve conflicts and enhance relationship satisfaction.

Social relationships: long-term relationships are vital to the mental health of both humans and animals. Positive emotions and experiences, such as romantic or platonic love, play a significant role in the establishment and maintenance of social bonds. With this in mind, researchers integrated brain imaging studies on emotions characterized by social connections to investigate whether and how humans and animals experience social emotions and influences similarly in the context of social relationships (Zablocki-Thomas et al. 2022 ). An ecological and cross-cutting perspective study found that black Americans viewed their partner’s interactions regarding discrimination as an opportunity for their romantic partner to offer support, as revealed in semi-structured interviews (Rice 2023 ). Furthermore, as romantic relationships represent one of the most unique types of social connections, researchers utilized functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanning techniques to explore the neurobiological mechanisms of romantic relationships (Eckstein et al. 2023 ), offering valuable insight for the preservation and maintenance of social relationships and interactions.

Over the last 10 years, the most popular keywords were “same-sex” (11.07), “dating relationships” (9.22), and “HIV” (9.05), indicating high demand for these topics in recent years. The keywords with the longest blasting times were “dating relationships” (2014–2017) and “delinquency” (2014–2017). The phrases that were still trending in 2022 were hotspots.

Figure 10 illustrated the relationship between keywords. The connection strength between two nodes was a quantitative measure of their relationship. The most frequently used keyword, “romantic relationship,” was represented by the largest node in Fig. 10 (see Table 6 ). The “romantic relationship” (2036) node had thicker lines than “attachment” (766), “gender” (728), “satisfaction” (664), “behavior” (529), “marriage” (508), “commitment” (419), “adolescents” (417), “associations” (395), and “intimate partner relationship” (336). The nodes had a minimum link strength of 150. The close connections between “romantic relationship” and “marriage,” “commitment,” and “intimate partnership” demonstrated the importance of stable, long-term relationships in maintaining romantic love (Fu et al. 2012 ).

The connection strength between two nodes was a quantitative measure of their relationship. The total link strength of a node was the sum of its link strengths relative to all other nodes (Liao et al. 2018).

Keywords are essential in identifying the central themes and prospective avenues of a publication. By examining the co-occurrence of keywords, one can discern the current trajectory of research and development in a specific field (Zhang et al. 2022c ). In the present investigation, a total of 16,148 keywords were extracted from 6858 articles related to romantic love, with 10,571 being used only once, accounting for 65.46% of the total keywords. Through keyword co-occurrence analysis, six distinct color-coded clusters were identified, comprising attachment, gender, romantic relationships, personality, communication, and dynamics. The red cluster, attachment, delved into the complex relationships among commitment, fulfillment, companionship, and attachment insecurity. To address the diminished satisfaction in partner relationships caused by attachment insecurity, promoting healthy dualistic coping strategies (DCS) was recommended (Peloquin et al. 2022 ). The green cluster, gender, focused on the issues of dating violence victimization experienced by young individuals of different genders, with sexual minorities being particularly vulnerable to bullying (Cosma et al. 2022 ). The blue cluster, romantic connections, primarily examined the link between depressive symptoms and violent intimate partner relationships. Recent studies showed that dating violence and peer victimization were prevalent among young individuals (Smith et al. 2021 ) and that dating aggression was associated with both internalized and externalized psychopathology in young couples (Lantagne and Furman 2021 ). Additionally, the misuse of internet dating may lead to depression (Toplu-Demirtas et al. 2020 ). Apart from the six clusters mentioned, there was a noticeable trend toward integrating research with neuroimaging technology, which might lead to the emergence of new clusters in the realm of romantic love. The interconnectedness of attachment, gender, and romantic relationships was evident in the strong theoretical foundation and widespread attention these clusters received, whereas the clusters of personality, communication, and dynamics were more peripherally related. Due to their significance, future research on romantic love will continue to explore topics such as intimate partner violence, teenage dating violence victimization, attachment insecurity, and sexual abuse, with a focus on the three interconnected clusters of attachment, gender, and romantic relationships. In traditional notions, our understanding of romantic love had primarily consisted of terms such as romantic relationships and intimate commitments. However, practical issues such as misperceptions about love and a lack of regard for partners have gradually shifted the subject matter of research pertaining to romantic love toward dating violence. The research trajectory demonstrates a shift in the focus of romantic love research from a more idealized perspective toward a more realistic one. Finally, Fig. 11 displayed a keyword timeline graph that depicted when the most prevalent keywords first appeared and their evolving importance over time.

This keyword timeline graph was depicted when the most prevalent keywords first appeared and their evolving importance over time.

The current study used advanced bibliometrics and literature data visualization techniques with CiteSpace, VOSviewer, and Web of Science to examine the growth of research publications in the field of romantic love, as well as the main research nations, journals, and emerging trends. The thorough review provided insight into the present status of development and research in this field, while also clarifying the historical path of scholarship and providing clear guidance for future research. Using bibliometric methods, the study investigated romantic love research from 2013 to 2022. The results showed a steady increase in publications on this topic, with a slight decrease noted in 2019, likely due to the detrimental impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on academic research. However, the analysis of current trends indicates a projected increase in research output on romantic love in the coming years.

Romantic love has been a global phenomenon, with Europe and the United States leading in widespread participation and clear concentration. Among the top 10 countries producing research in this field, the United States led with 4092 publications between 2013 and 2022. China, ranking fourth in terms of publications, emerged as the most prolific developing nation (328). However, compared to the United States, China lagged behind in publications and international collaboration. Therefore, China needs to expand its research efforts in this area and broaden its international partnerships. The top ten research institutions, mainly universities, played a vital role in advancing this field. Notably, nine out of ten of these institutions were located in the United States, further highlighting the preeminent position of American academic institutions in this area of study.

In the current study, we have discovered noteworthy findings regarding notable authors in the field of romantic love. The research studies have primarily focused on four distinct perspectives: the Limerence Theory, the Rate of Change in Intimacy Model, the Self-Expansion Model, and the Triangular Theory of Love. These perspectives have proposed four possible sources of romantic passion and assessed empirical evidence for and against each. Among the authors, Emily A. Impett has emerged as the most prolific author (Carswell and Impett 2021 ). Frank D. Fincham, who has the highest H-index, has conducted extensive research on the interplay between mindfulness and idiosyncratic mindfulness in romantic relationships. Notably, his research on adolescent intimate partner violence has received the most citations (Cui et al. 2013 ; Frank and Ross 2017 ; Kimmes et al. 2018 ). Furthermore, we found that an author’s centrality and citation frequency did not always correlate with their number of publications, indicating that various factors had contributed to an author’s academic influence (Zhang et al. 2022a ).

The term “burst term” refers to a term that unexpectedly appears in research and may indicate new directions or a novel perspective derived from research (Xu et al. 2022 ). According to Fig. 8 , the following references experienced a citation burst by the end of 2022: (1) Mikulincer and Shaver ( 2016 ) delved into the causes and measures of individual differences in adult attachment, explored the modifiability of attachment styles, and unveiled cutting-edge research in genetics, neurology, and hormones associated with attachment. They also extended the impact model’s depiction of the attachment system’s operation. (2) Wincentak et al. ( 2017 ) conducted a meta-analysis to investigate the prevalence of dating violence among adolescents of various genders, while also examining the potential impact of age, demographic factors, and measurement methods. Their findings suggested that the rate of perpetration of dating violence was significantly higher among male adolescents than female adolescents. In other words, male adolescents were more likely to engage in dating violence than their female counterparts. This gender difference in dating violence rates highlighted the need for targeted prevention and intervention efforts to address this issue among young people.

CiteSpace displayed keywords in bursts, as shown in Fig. 9 . These data were significant for reference in cutting-edge prediction research. The terms “same-sex,” “conflict resolution,” and “social relationships” might be used frequently in the coming years, indicating potential areas of focus within the domain of romantic love:

Same-sex: same-sex relationships faced unique pressures and stigma in a society that largely valued heterosexual partnerships, leading to feelings of shame and additional stressors based on sexual orientation (Feinstein et al. 2018 ; Rostosky and Riggle 2017 ). Notably, studies have revealed that the online behavior of gay individuals could significantly impact their emotional well-being and sexual risk behaviors within their romantic relationships (Zhang et al. 2022b ). To improve the health and well-being of same-sex couples and their families, effective dual interventions have been developed, including educating parents about the potential harm caused by heteronormative assumptions and attitudes on their children’s adolescent development (Pearson and Wilkinson 2013 ).

Conflict resolution: prior research has revealed the paradox that a person’s beloved partner, such as their significant other, is often the individual with whom they engage in harmful behavior during conflicts. The negative reaction could be one of the most challenging issues in a relationship (Alonso-Ferres et al. 2021 ). Therefore, it is imperative to resolve conflicts in a successful manner. Computer-mediated communication (CMC) has emerged as a novel approach to conflict resolution, and researchers have investigated this matter, concluding that there are no disparities in the levels of pain, anger, and conflict resolution between face-to-face and CMC discussions (Pollmann et al. 2020 ). Another study explored the neural mechanisms during conflict resolution, and researchers discovered that mediation could improve conflict resolution and was linked to elevated activity in the nucleus accumbens, a crucial area in the brain’s reward circuit (Rafi et al. 2020 ).

Social relationships: long-term relationships play a critical role in maintaining the mental health of both humans and animals. Positive emotions and emotional experiences, such as romantic or platonic love, are intricately linked to the formation and sustenance of social bonds. To gain insights into how social emotions manifest in both humans and animals, researchers integrated brain imaging studies of emotions associated with social connections (Zablocki-Thomas et al. 2022 ). From an ecological and cross-cutting perspective, another study found that Black Americans viewed their partner’s interactions around discrimination as an opportunity for their romantic partner to provide support, as revealed in semi-structured interviews (Rice 2023 ). Furthermore, given the unique nature of romantic relationships in social interactions, researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) techniques to investigate the neurobiological mechanisms of such relationships (Eckstein et al. 2023 ), which could serve as a reference for the preservation and cultivation of social relationships.

To our knowledge, our study represented a novel application of quantitative bibliometric tools such as CiteSpace and VOSviewer to analyze the literature on romantic love over the past decade. While our analysis yielded intriguing insights into the research landscape of this field, our study was not without limitations. First and foremost, our sample was limited to articles and reviews available in a single database, and thus, may not have been fully representative of the entire research landscape on this topic. Second, the current study restricted our data collection to English-language publications, and future studies may benefit from including publications in other languages to ensure a more comprehensive analysis. Additionally, including different types of publications, such as conference papers and working papers, might have provided further insights into recent advancements in the field. Furthermore, it could be acknowledged that the analysis in the current study could be expanded to consider the contributions of other scholars and institutions in the field, beyond those captured by our data set. Finally, while the bibliometric tools used in our analysis were objective, our interpretation of the results remained subjective and may have been subject to varying interpretations.

Concluding remarks

Research significance and future development.

The present study’s comprehensive analysis of the literature on romantic love, as well as its reporting of research findings across diverse domains over the past decade, offered a solid groundwork for future research and potential worldwide applications. From 2013 to 2022, a staggering 6858 articles and reviews on romantic love were published globally, indicating a bright future for this field of inquiry. In terms of research potency, the United States led the pack, with the University of California System accounting for the majority of publications in the area of romantic love, and Emily A. Impett ranking as the most prolific contributor. The Journal of Social and Personal Relationships had published the most articles on romantic love research, while the most recent trends in romantic love-related keywords included “same-sex,” “conflict resolution,” and “social relationships.” The current research was predominantly centered around intimate relationships, evolutionary psychology, sexual orientation, and symptoms of depression. The trends elucidated by these findings underscore the holistic and interdisciplinary nature of romantic love within the realms of psychology, sociology, biology, and neuroscience. Subsequent investigations into romantic love hold the promise of a more profound amalgamation of methodologies derived from psychology and neuroscience, thereby illuminating the physiological underpinnings of love and emotional experiences. This prospect entails a meticulous exploration of brain activity, probing how intricate psychological processes intertwine with biology to forge the intricacies of romantic relationships. Furthermore, romantic love research stands poised to cultivate seamless integration and interdisciplinary cooperation across a spectrum of fields in the future, yielding profound ramifications.

Method limitation

The current study, which utilized tools such as CiteSpace and Vosviewer for a quantitative analysis of the literature on romantic love over the past 10 years, is the first of its kind to our knowledge. Our investigation, though producing intriguing results through bibliometric analysis and visualization of related articles, is not without its limitations. Firstly, the samples utilized were limited to a single database (WOS), which may not encompass all relevant publications on the subject. Secondly, the scope of our data collection was limited to articles and reviews in English only, leaving out potential information from other types of publications such as working papers and conference papers. In future studies, a broader consideration of different languages should also be given. Additionally, the neural mechanism and physiological function of romantic love remain an under-researched area with limited empirical evidence to support ongoing controversy.

Data availability

Original data for the current study are available via this link: https://rec.ustc.edu.cn/share/0d874150-b039-11ee-be97-f5a41b2eeb6e .

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This research was supported by the Starting Fund for Scientific Research of High-Level Talents at Anhui Agricultural University (rc432206) and the Outstanding Youth Program of Philosophy and Social Sciences in Anhui Province (2022AH030089) to SL.

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Han, Y., Luo, Y., Chen, Z. et al. A decade of love: mapping the landscape of romantic love research through bibliometric analysis. Humanit Soc Sci Commun 11 , 187 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-024-02665-7

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Research Article

Regulation of Romantic Love Feelings: Preconceptions, Strategies, and Feasibility

* E-mail: [email protected]

Affiliations Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Missouri–St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri, United States of America, Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, United States of America

Affiliation Institute of Psychology, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

• Sandra J. E. Langeslag, 
• Jan W. van Strien

• Published: August 16, 2016
• https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0161087
• Reader Comments

Love feelings can be more intense than desired (e.g., after a break-up) or less intense than desired (e.g., in long-term relationships). If only we could control our love feelings! We present the concept of explicit love regulation, which we define as the use of behavioral and cognitive strategies to change the intensity of current feelings of romantic love. We present the first two studies on preconceptions about, strategies for, and the feasibility of love regulation. Questionnaire responses showed that people perceive love feelings as somewhat uncontrollable. Still, in four open questions people reported to use strategies such as cognitive reappraisal, distraction, avoidance, and undertaking (new) activities to cope with break-ups, to maintain long-term relationships, and to regulate love feelings. Instructed up-regulation of love using reappraisal increased subjective feelings of attachment, while love down-regulation decreased subjective feelings of infatuation and attachment. We used the late positive potential (LPP) amplitude as an objective index of regulation success. Instructed love up-regulation enhanced the LPP between 300–400 ms in participants who were involved in a relationship and in participants who had recently experienced a romantic break-up, while love down-regulation reduced the LPP between 700–3000 ms in participants who were involved in a relationship. These findings corroborate the self-reported feasibility of love regulation, although they are complicated by the finding that love up-regulation also reduced the LPP between 700–3000 ms in participants who were involved in a relationship. To conclude, although people have the preconception that love feelings are uncontrollable, we show for the first time that intentional regulation of love feelings using reappraisal, and perhaps other strategies, is feasible. Love regulation will benefit individuals and society because it could enhance positive effects and reduce negative effects of romantic love.

Citation: Langeslag SJE, van Strien JW (2016) Regulation of Romantic Love Feelings: Preconceptions, Strategies, and Feasibility. PLoS ONE 11(8): e0161087. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0161087

Editor: Alexandra Key, Vanderbilt University, UNITED STATES

Received: March 8, 2016; Accepted: July 31, 2016; Published: August 16, 2016

Copyright: © 2016 Langeslag, van Strien. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Data Availability: Our data cannot be made publicly available for ethical reasons. That is, participants were not asked for permission for their data to be shared. Parts of the data are available on request. Please send requests to Sandra Langeslag ( [email protected] ).

Funding: The authors received no specific funding for this work.

Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Introduction

Romantic love strikes virtually everyone at least once (i.e., its lifetime prevalence approaches 100%) [ 1 ] and has a great impact on our lives. Romantic love has positive effects on individuals and society as a whole. For example, love is associated with positive emotions such as euphoria [ 2 ] and romantic relationships enhance happiness and life satisfaction [ 3 ]. But love also has a negative impact on individuals and society. For example, love is associated with stress [ 4 ] and jealousy [ 5 ], and romantic break-ups are associated with sadness and shame [ 6 ], a decrease in happiness and life satisfaction [ 7 ], and depression [ 8 ]. The high prevalence of love combined with its significant positive and negative impact on individuals and society make it an important research topic.

The word ‘love’ has many different meanings and may have different meanings to different people. Researchers have proposed several taxonomies of love, with various numbers of love types or components [ 9 – 13 ]. In this study, two types of love feelings are considered: infatuation and attachment. Infatuation is the overwhelming, amorous feeling for one individual, and is similar to the concepts ‘passion’ or ‘infatuated love’ [ 10 ], ‘romantic love’ [ 11 ], ‘passionate love’ [ 12 ], and ‘attraction’ [ 13 ]. Attachment, on the other hand, is the comforting feeling of emotional bonding with another individual, and is similar to the concepts ‘intimacy’ with ‘decision/commitment’ [ 10 ], and ‘companionate love’ [ 10 – 12 ].

Love feelings are sometimes weaker than desired. Infatuation is typically most intense at the early stages of love after which it decreases relatively quickly [ 13 – 15 ] and attachment takes some time to develop [ 13 – 15 ] after which it decreases over the course of decades [ 16 ]. The decrease of infatuation and attachment over time threatens the stability of romantic relationships. Indeed, falling out of love is the primary reason for divorce [ 17 ]. Love feelings can also be stronger than desired. People may, for example, be in love with someone who does not love them back or who has broken up with them. Clearly, it would be advantageous if we could regulate love feelings at will, so that we could up-regulate them when they are weaker than desired, and down-regulate them when they are stronger than desired.

We define love regulation as the use of behavioral or cognitive strategies to change the intensity of current feelings of romantic love. In an interview study, participants reported that their love feelings were involuntary and uncontrollable [ 2 ]. Nevertheless, three lines of research suggest that love regulation may actually be feasible. First, it is well known that people can regulate their emotions [ 18 – 21 ], which entails generating new emotions or changing the intensity of current emotions using behavioral or cognitive strategies [ 20 ]. There are multiple emotion regulation strategies, including situation selection, distraction, expression suppression, and cognitive reappraisal. Situation selection is to avoid or seek out certain situations to change the way you feel (e.g., attending a party to have fun) [ 21 ]. Distraction entails performing a secondary task to reduce the intensity of emotions (e.g., playing a video game to forget about a bad incident at work) [ 20 ]. Expression suppression involves inhibiting the expression of an emotion (e.g., keeping a poker face) [ 22 ]. Cognitive reappraisal involves reinterpreting the situation to change the way you feel (e.g., decreasing or increasing nervousness by reinterpreting an upcoming job interview as an opportunity to learn more about the company or as a once in a lifetime opportunity, respectively) [ 22 ]. Emotion regulation can be used to up- and down-regulate positive and negative emotions [ 23 ] and may happen implicitly or explicitly [ 18 ].

However, love is sometimes considered a motivation (or drive) rather than an emotion [ 24 ]. One reason why love would not be an emotion is that it elicits different emotions depending on the situation. Reciprocated love, for example, may elicit the emotion euphoria, while unreciprocated love may elicit the emotion sadness. It is therefore important that a second line of research has shown that people can use cognitive strategies to regulate their motivations, including sexual arousal [ 25 ], excitement about monetary reward [ 26 – 29 ], and craving for alcohol, food, and cigarettes [ 30 , 31 ]. The evidence that motivations can be regulated intentionally supports the idea that explicit love regulation may be feasible.

Finally, a third research line has shown that people think more favorably of their romantic partner than objectively justified [ 32 , 33 ]. Importantly, people who idealize their partner and whose partners idealize them have happier relationships [ 34 ]. These findings suggest that implicit up-regulation of love feelings for the current romantic partner is feasible and that it contributes to relationship satisfaction.

Even though this last research line shows that people can regulate their love feelings implicitly, there are no studies that provide information about the deliberate, explicit up- and down-regulation of love feelings. In two studies, we systematically examined preconceptions about, strategies for, and the feasibility of explicit regulation of love feelings. The first goal was to determine whether people think that love feelings can be controlled or not. Participants answered a series of questions that measured perceived control over love feelings and previous research [ 2 ] led us to hypothesize that people would perceive love feelings as uncontrollable. The second goal was to reveal which strategies people use when they try to up- and down-regulate their love feelings. Participants responded to four open questions and we expected that people would report the use of typical behavioral and cognitive emotion regulation strategies mentioned above. First, we conducted a pilot study (Study 1) and then we conducted another study (Study 2) to confirm the findings of the pilot study.

In addition, Study 2 employed a love regulation task to achieve the final research goal, which was to examine if people can intentionally up- and down-regulate love feelings. In this first empirical test of the feasibility of love regulation, we focused on the reappraisal strategy because it is considered effective in altering feeling intensity and beneficial for cognitive and social functioning [ 21 ]. Situation-focused reappraisal entails changing the emotional meaning of a situation by reinterpreting it [ 21 ], for example by focusing on positive or negative aspects of the situation, or by imagining a positive or negative outcome [ 35 ]. The use of cognitive reappraisal to regulate love feelings is related to the notion that cognitive processes, including making attributions, are associated with relationship satisfaction [ 36 , 37 ]. We focus on the intensity of infatuation and attachment rather than relationship outcomes, since love feelings do not occur exclusively in the context of romantic relationships [ 14 ].

Because it depends on the situation whether people would benefit from love up- or down-regulation, we tested a group of people who were involved in a romantic relationship and a group of people who had recently experienced a romantic break-up. People who are currently in a romantic relationship were expected to benefit from love up-regulation, because that would stabilize their relationship. People who have just experienced a break-up, in contrast, would benefit from love down-regulation, because that could help them cope with the break-up. Because previous research has shown that intense feelings of romantic love can be elicited by viewing pictures of the beloved [ 38 ], pictures of the (ex-)partner were used to elicit feelings of love, which participants were instructed to regulate in an explicit regulation task. Because self-reports are the only way to assess phenomenology (i.e., how someone feels) [ 39 ], participants rated how infatuated and how attached they felt after each regulation condition. It was hypothesized that love up-regulation would increase feelings of infatuation and attachment, whereas love down-regulation would decrease feelings of infatuation and attachment in both groups. It is of course important to dissociate between the concept of love regulation and the well-established concept of emotion regulation. Therefore, participants also rated how negative or positive they felt after each regulation condition. It was expected that love up-regulation would make the relationship group feel more positive, while love down-regulation would make them feel more negative. The opposite pattern was expected for the break-up group: feeling more negative following up-regulation and more positive following down-regulation. This hypothesis shows how love regulation is theoretically distinct from emotion regulation. That is, love regulation targets the intensity of love feelings rather than emotions. Of course, the change in love feelings may in turn influence emotions or affect. The direction of the effect of love regulation on emotion or affect may differ depending on the context, as indicated by the hypothesized opposite effects of love regulation on emotion/affect in the relationship and break-up groups.

Even though self-reports gain a unique insight into what people experience, they also suffer from social desirability biases and demand characteristics [ 40 , 41 ]. Therefore, in addition to subjective self-reports, we used event-related potentials (ERPs) as a more objective measure of love regulation success. ERPs have been used before to study emotion regulation and to study romantic love, but not to study love regulation. The late positive potential (LPP) reflects multiple and overlapping positivies over the posterior scalp beginning in the time range of the classic P300, i.e., around 300 ms after stimulus onset. The LPP amplitude is typically enhanced for negative and positive compared to neutral stimuli [ 19 ] and is therefore thought to reflect the affective and motivational intensity of information and the resulting motivated attention [ 42 ]. Correspondingly, we have shown that the LPP is enhanced in response to pictorial and verbal beloved-related information compared to control information [ 32 , 43 , 44 ]. Importantly, the LPP amplitude is modulated by emotion regulation instructions according to the regulatory goal: emotion down-regulation reduces the LPP amplitude, while emotion up-regulation enhances the LPP amplitude [ 27 , 45 – 49 ]. The LPP amplitude can therefore be used as an objective measure of regulation success [ 19 ]. Because the LPP reflects affective and motivational significance and the resulting motivated attention, rather than valence [ 42 ], regulation effects in the LPP amplitude reflect how regulation changes the affective and motivational intensity of information and the amount of motivated attention allocated to that information. It was expected that love up-regulation would enhance the LPP in response to pictures of the (ex-)partner in both groups, which would indicate that love up-regulation would enhance the affective and motivational significance of, and the resulting motivated attention to the (ex-)partner. Love down-regulation, in contrast, was expected to reduce the LPP amplitude to (ex-)partner pictures in both groups, which would indicate that love down-regulation would reduce the affective and motivational significance of, and the resulting motivated attention to the (ex-)partner.

Study 1 –Methods

Participants.

Thirty-two participants (18–30 yrs, M = 21.4, 7 men) who were in love by self-report were recruited from the University of Maryland community in the US. Being in love was an inclusion criterion because some of the questions assessing perceived control over love feelings (see below) contained a blank in which the participants had to mentally insert the name of their beloved. The study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of the University of Maryland and written informed consent was obtained. Participants were remunerated with $10.

First, participants completed some questions about their love feelings and their romantic relationship [ 44 ]. Participants also completed the Infatuation and Attachment Scales (IAS) [ 14 ], and the Passionate Love Scale (PLS) [ 50 ] to assess the intensity of infatuation and attachment. Then, participants completed 17 questions to assess perceived control of love feelings (Cronbach’s alpha = .93), see the S1 Appendix . These questions were phrased to measure perceived control over love in general, and over infatuation and attachment specifically. They were also phrased to measure perceived control over one’s own vs. people’s love feelings, and over the intensity and object of love feelings. Participants responded using a 9-point Likert scale (1 = totally disagree, 9 = totally agree).

Subsequently, participants answered four open questions about the use of behavioral and cognitive strategies in the contexts of heartbreak and long-term relationships. We distinguished between emotion regulation and love down-regulation in the context of heartbreak by asking two questions: “What do you do or think to feel better when you have a broken heart?” (i.e., emotion regulation), “What do you do or think to decrease feelings of love when you have a broken heart?” (i.e., love down-regulation). In addition, we distinguished between maintaining relationships and love up-regulation in the context of long-term relationships by asking two questions: “What do you do or think to maintain a long-term relationship?” (i.e., maintaining relationships), and “What do you do or think to prevent that feelings of love decline in a long-term relationship?” (i.e., love up-regulation). If participants had not experienced heartbreak or any long-term relationships, they replied with what they think they would do in those circumstances.

The mean score on the 17 perceived control questions was subjected to a one-sample t -test against 5, to test if it differed from neutral. In addition, responses on subsets of the 17 questions that measured perceived control over a certain aspect of love were averaged to obtain measures of perceived control over seven different aspects of love (love in general, infatuation, attachment, self, people in general, intensity of love, and object of love). Five paired sample t -tests were conducted to test for differences in perceived control between related aspects of love (i.e., love in general vs. infatuation, love in general vs. attachment, infatuation vs. attachment, self vs. people in general, and intensity vs. object of feelings).

The responses to the four open strategy questions were analyzed qualitatively. Many participants listed multiple strategies in response to each of the four open strategy questions. Each strategy was scored as being an exemplar of a certain category. A priori categories were emotion regulation strategies such as reappraisal, distraction, and suppression [ 20 , 21 ]. In the heartbreak context, reappraisal was subdivided into “focus on the negative aspects of the beloved/relationship”, “think of negative future scenarios”, “think about the positive aspects of the situation”, and “other”. In the long-term relationship context, reappraisal was subdivided into “focus on the positive aspects of the beloved/relationship”, and “think of positive future scenarios”. Other categories such as avoidance (see Tables 1 and 2 ) were added on the basis of participants’ responses.

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Study 1 –Results

Participant characteristics.

All participants had an opposite-sex beloved. Twenty-seven (84%) of the participants reported to be in a relationship with their beloved, which supports the idea that love does not occur exclusively in the context of relationships [ 14 ]. See Table 3 for the other love characteristics.

Means (ranges in parentheses).

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Perceived control

The mean score on the 17 perceived control questions was 4.5 ( SD = 1.4). A one-sample t -test revealed that this tended to be lower than 5 (= neutral), t (31) = -1.9, p = .066, which implies that participants perceive love feelings as neither controllable, nor uncontrollable, or as somewhat uncontrollable, if anything. See Table 4 for the mean perceived control over the seven different aspects of love. Participants felt more in control of feelings of attachment than infatuation, t (31) = 2.4, p = .022. There was no difference between the perceived control over the own vs. people’s feelings, t (31) = 0.5, p = .64. Participants felt more control over the intensity than the object of their love feelings, t (31) = 2.1, p = .047.

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See Tables 1 and 2 for the regulation strategies reported. In the context of heartbreak, participants mostly used distraction, social support, and reappraisal. Distraction (e.g., watching TV, listening to music, focusing on work or school, or exercise) and seeking social support (e.g., talking to or spending time with family/friends) were used more to feel better than to decrease love feelings. In contrast, reappraisal was used more to decrease love feelings than to feel better. Reappraisal by focusing on negative aspects of the beloved was the most popular reappraisal strategy. Examples of other reappraisal strategies were thinking that time will heal, finding someone else to love, or focusing on positive aspects of oneself or one’s life. Thinking about positive aspects of the situation (e.g., focusing on the advantages of being single or being hopeful for the future), as well as avoidance (i.e., not talking about the beloved, getting rid of all pictures, and eliminating all contact) were moderately popular strategies to decrease love feelings. Strategies such as reappraisal by thinking about negative future scenarios (“it just wasn’t meant to last”), eating/smoking, and expressing emotions (“cry”) were used least often. None of the participants reported the use of suppression. Two participants reported that they did not, or could not, decrease love feelings.

In the context of long-term relationships, participants stressed the importance of communication/honesty and undertaking (new) activities with their beloved. Communication/honesty was deemed important for maintaining long-term relationships, whereas undertaking (new) activities with the beloved, which is a situation selection strategy, was mostly used to prevent love feelings from declining. Other strategies such as expressing love feelings to the beloved, trust, spending (quality) time with the beloved, loving unconditionally/making compromises, the two reappraisal strategies, and spending time apart from the beloved were mentioned as well. Six participants stated that love feelings would not decline if the relationship was good and/or that they would end the relationship if love feelings would decline.

In short, several behavioral and cognitive strategies were used in the contexts of heartbreak and long-term relationships. Some of these strategies were the typical cognitive and behavioral emotion regulation strategies, such as reappraisal, distraction, and situation selection. While some strategies seemed specific for feeling better during heartbreak or for maintaining long-term relationships, strategies such as reappraisal by focusing on negative aspects of the beloved or the relationship and undertaking (new) activities with the beloved seemed specific for down- and up-regulation of love feelings, respectively.

Interim Discussion

The results of this first exploratory study show that people perceive love feelings as neither controllable, nor uncontrollable (or as somewhat uncontrollable, if anything). People did perceive more control over some aspects of love than others and the majority of people reported to use a variety of strategies when heartbroken or when in a long-term relationship. Some strategies seemed specific for changing the intensity of love feelings, rather than for regulating emotions or maintaining relationships. Because this was only a pilot study with mostly female participants, we conducted a follow-up study (Study 2) to replicate and confirm these preliminary findings in a more gender-balanced sample. As mentioned in the introduction, Study 2 also included a love regulation task to test the feasibility of love regulation.

Study 2 –Methods

Twenty participants who were in a romantic relationship (19–25 yrs, M = 21.7, 10 men) and 20 participants who had recently experienced a romantic break-up (19–26 yrs, M = 21.9, 10 men) were recruited from the Erasmus University Rotterdam community in The Netherlands. For brevity, we will use the words ‘partner’ and ‘relationship’ in the remainder of the paper regardless of whether the relationship was ongoing or had dissolved. Inclusion criteria were normal or corrected to-normal vision, right-handedness (as determined by a hand preference questionnaire [ 51 ]), no use of medication known to affect the central nervous system, and no mental disorders. The reason for excluding participants with mental disorders was that many mental disorders are associated with emotion dysregulation [ 23 ], which indicates that love regulation may also be different in patients than in healthy controls. Four participants had to be excluded from the EEG analyses because of experimenter error during the EEG recording ( n = 3) or too many artifacts ( n = 1, more information below). Therefore the EEG analyses are based on 18 participants who were in a romantic relationship (19–25 yrs, M = 21.8, 9 men) and 18 participants who had recently experienced a romantic break-up (19–26 yrs, M = 21.7, 8 men). The study was approved by the Psychologie Ethische Commissie of the Erasmus Universiteit Rottterdam and written informed consent was obtained. Participants were remunerated with course credit or €15.

Questionnaires

In addition to the questions about their love feelings and their romantic relationship [ 44 ], the 17 perceived control questions (Cronbach’s alpha = .92), the four open regulation strategy questions, the Infatuation and Attachment Scales (IAS) [ 14 ], and the Passionate Love Scale (PLS) [ 50 ] used in Study 1, participants completed the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ) [ 22 ] to assess individual differences in the habitual use of reappraisal and suppression. Participants also completed the Positive Affect Negative Affect Schedules (PANAS) twice, once about the last two weeks and once about this moment [ 52 ].

Participants provided 30 digital pictures of their partner. There were no other requirements than that the pictures had to contain the partner. Therefore, the pictures could display parts of the partner (e.g., just the face) or the whole body of the partner, people other than the partner, a variety of facial expressions, objects, and scenery. The pictures were presented to elicit love feelings [ 38 ] and to help the participant come up with negative or positive aspects of the partner/relationship and future scenarios (see below). It is important to note that the variety of information on the pictures does not confound the effects of regulation, because the same 30 partner pictures were presented in each regulation condition. For the same reason, differences in picture content between the two groups could not confound the differences in regulation effects between groups. In addition, the pictures ensure high ecological validity, as the partner is typically encountered in a wide variety of contexts and with varying facial expressions. The neutral stimuli were 30 neutral pictures displaying humans from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS) [ 53 ] with neutral normative valence ( M = 5.4, SD = 0.5) and low normative arousal ( M = 3.5, SD = 0.5) ratings, see S1 Text .

Love regulation task

Participants completed a love regulation task, see Fig 1 , while their electroencephalogram (EEG) was recorded. In the first two blocks, participants passively viewed partner and neutral pictures (order counterbalanced between participants). In the third and fourth block, participants were instructed to up- and down-regulate their love feelings in response to the partner pictures (order counterbalanced between participants) using reappraisal. Up-regulation instructions were to increase love feelings by thinking about positive aspects of the partner (e.g., “He is so funny”) or relationship (e.g., “We get along so well”), or positive future scenarios (e.g., “We’ll get married”). Down-regulation instructions were to decrease love feelings by thinking about negative aspects of the partner (e.g., “She is so lazy”) or relationship (e.g., “We often fight”), or negative future scenarios (e.g., “We won’t stay together forever”). Participants could use the information in the picture for inspiration. For example, the partner wearing a yellow shirt and standing next to a friend on a picture could inspire the participant to up-regulate love feelings by thinking “I love that yellow shirt he’s wearing” and to down-regulate love feelings by thinking “He is always hitting on that friend, and he might cheat on me one day”. These are instructions of situation-focused reappraisal, which involves reinterpreting “the nature of the events themselves, reevaluating others’ actions, dispositions, and outcomes” rather than self-focused reappraisal, which involves altering “the personal relevance of events” ([ 35 ], p. 484). That is, focusing on negative/positive aspects of the partner involves a reevaluation of the partner’s dispositions (“My partner is a wonderful person” when focusing on positive aspects vs. “My partner is a terrible person” when focusing on negative aspects), focusing on negative/positive aspects of the relationship involves a reevaluation of the relationship (“I am/was in a good relationship” when focusing on positive aspects, and “I am/was in a bad relationship” when focusing on negative aspects), and imagining positive/negative future relationship scenarios involves reevaluation of outcomes.

Please note that the stimulus in this figure is not actually one of the pictures that were submitted by the participants. Instead, it is an IAPS picture [ 53 ] that resembles the kinds of pictures that participants submitted.

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Each block started with an instruction word (‘view’, ‘increase’, ‘decrease’) for 4 sec and consisted of 30 trials. Trial structure was: fixation cross for 900–1100 ms, picture for 3 sec, and blank screen for 2 sec. After each block, participants completed four ratings on a 1–5 scale: infatuation, attachment, valence, and arousal, and they also completed the PANAS at this moment [ 52 ]. After the regulation task, participants wrote down what they had thought to up- and down-regulate love feelings to verify that they had followed the instructions.

EEG recording and preprocessing

The EEG was recorded using a 32-channel amplifier and data acquisition software (ActiveTwoSystem, BioSemi). The 32 Ag-AgCl active electrodes were placed upon the scalp by means of a head cap (BioSemi), according to the 10–20 International System. Vertical electro-oculogram and horizontal electro-oculogram were recorded by attaching additional electrodes (UltraFlat Active electrodes, BioSemi) above and below the left eye, and at the outer canthi of both eyes. Another two electrodes were attached to the left and right mastoids. An active electrode (common mode sense) and a passive electrode (driven right leg) were used to comprise a feedback loop for amplifier reference. All signals were digitized with a sampling rate of 512 Hz, a 24 bit A/D conversion and a low pass filter of 134 Hz. The EEG data were analyzed with BrainVision Analyzer 2 (Brain Products, Gilching, Germany). Per participant, a maximum of one bad electrode included in the analyses (see below) was corrected using spherical spline topographic interpolation. Offline, an average mastoids reference was applied and the data were filtered using a 0.1–30 Hz band pass filter (phase shift-free Butterworth filters; 24 dB/octave slope) and a 50 Hz notch filter. Data were segmented in epochs from 200 ms pre-stimulus until 3000 ms post-stimulus onset. Ocular artifact correction was applied semi-automatically according to the Gratton and Coles algorithm [ 54 ]. The 200 ms pre-stimulus period was used for baseline correction. Artifact rejection was performed at individual electrodes with the criterion minimum and maximum baseline-to-peak -75 to +75 μV. Because at least 12 trials are needed to adequately estimate emotion regulation effects in the LPP amplitude [ 55 ], the one participant that had fewer than 12 trials left per electrode per condition was excluded from the EEG analyses, as mentioned above. At the three electrodes used in the analyses (see below), the average number of accepted trials per condition ranged from 29.5 to 29.8 out of 30.

Statistical analyses

Questionnaire scores were analyzed with independent samples t -tests to test for differences between groups (adjusted t , df , and p values are shown when the Levene’s test for equality of variances indicated variance differences between the groups). Besides the one-sample t -test against 5 (= neutral), the perceived control scores were analyzed with three ANOVAs: one ANOVA with factors Love type (love in general, infatuation, attachment) and Group (relationship, break-up), one ANOVA with factors Self/People (self, people in general) and Group, and one ANOVA with factors Intensity/Object (intensity, object) and Group. Pearson correlation coefficients were computed between the seven perceived control scores and the two ERQ subscales across groups. Ratings and PANAS scores after the view conditions were analyzed with an ANOVA with factors Picture (partner, neutral) and Group. Ratings and PANAS scores following the three conditions with partner pictures were analyzed with an ANOVA with factors Regulation (view, up-regulation, down-regulation) and Group. In this analysis, only significant effects involving the factor Regulation are reported, because the main effect of Group is not relevant for the research question.

Because the LPP begins in the time range of the classic P300 [ 19 ] and can last as long as the stimulus duration [ 56 ], the ERP was quantified by mean amplitude measures in four time windows based on previous work [ 47 , 48 , 56 – 58 ]: 300–400 ms, 400–700 ms, 700–1000 ms, 1000–3000 ms. For each time window, mean amplitudes measures at Fz, Cz, and Pz were subjected to two ANOVAs. The first concerned the two view blocks and tested the factors Picture, Group, and Caudality (Fz, Cz, Pz). Only significant effects involving the factor Picture are reported, because those are relevant for the research question. The second ANOVA concerned the three blocks with partner pictures and tested the factors Regulation, Group, and Caudality. In this analysis, only significant effects involving the factor Regulation are reported, because those are relevant for the research question. When applicable, the degrees of freedom were corrected using the Greenhouse-Geisser correction. The F values, uncorrected degrees of freedom, the ε values and corrected probability values are reported. A significance level of 5% (two-sided) was selected and Fisher’s least significance difference (LSD) procedure was applied. This procedure controls type I error rate by conducting follow-up tests for significant main and interaction effects only. Those follow-up tests were paired samples t -tests testing differences between conditions across both groups (in case of significant main or interaction effects without the factor Group) or within groups (in case of significant interactions with the factor Group).

Study 2 –Results

Group characteristics.

All participants had an opposite-sex partner. The average time since the break-up was 3.0 months (range = 0.5–13.5). Ten of these break-ups were initiated by the partner, six by the participant, and four break-ups were a joint decision. See Table 4 for the other group characteristics and the statistics related to group differences. The relationship and break-up groups did not differ in how long they had known their partner for, how long ago their love feelings had started, and the duration of their relationships. The break-up groups did tend to report lower relationship quality than the relationship group. The break-up group also felt less attached and tended to feel more infatuated with their partner than the relationship group. Moreover, the break-up group tended to have experienced less positive affect during the past two weeks and had experienced more negative affect in the past two weeks and at the start of the testing session than the relationship group. Finally, the relationship and break-up groups did not differ in their habitual use of reappraisal and suppression. Thus, the two groups differed from each other on variables that can be expected to be related to whether someone is in a relationship or has experienced a break-up, but the groups did not differ on variables that should be unrelated to relationship status.

The mean score on the 17 perceived control questions was 4.5 ( SD = 1.4). A one-sample t -test showed that this was significantly lower than 5 (= neutral), t (39) = -2.2, p = .032, which suggests that participants perceive love feelings as uncontrollable. See Table 3 for the mean perceived control over the seven different aspects of love. There was a significant main effect of Love type, F (2,76) = 19.8, ε = 1.0, p < .001. Participants felt more in control of feelings of attachment than of feelings of infatuation or love in general, both p s < .001. In addition, there tended to be a main effect of Self/People, F (1,38) = 3.9, p = .056. Participants tended to feel that they were less able to control their love feelings than people in general are. Finally, there was a main effect of Intensity/Object, F (1,38) = 14.6, p < .001. Participants felt more in control of the intensity than of the object of their love feelings. In none of these analyses, the main effect of Group or interactions with Group were significant, all F s < 2.4, all p s > .13, so perceived control over different aspects of love feelings did not differ between the relationship and break-up groups.

The ERQ reappraisal score correlated positively with perceived control over individual love feelings, r (38) = .32, p = .044, and tended to correlate positively with perceived control over the intensity of love feelings, r (38) = .30, p = .056, and with perceived control over the object of love feelings, r (38) = .29, p = .075, see Fig 2 . These findings suggest that the more participants used the reappraisal strategy to regulate emotions in their daily life, the more they perceived love feelings as controllable.

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See Tables 1 and 2 for the regulation strategies reported. Participants mostly used distraction and reappraisal when heartbroken. Distraction was used more to feel better, while reappraisal by focusing on the negative aspects of the beloved/relationship was used more to decrease love feelings. The other strategies, such as reappraisal by thinking about the positive aspects of the situation, other ways of reappraising, avoidance, suppression (“making yourself strong (pretend) for the outside world”), eating/smoking, and expressing emotions were used least often when heartbroken. None of the participants reported the use of reappraisal by thinking about negative future scenarios. Two participants reported that they could not decrease love feelings. The use of the different strategies did not appear to differ between the relationship and break-up groups. Seeking social support was less popular in the current Dutch sample than in the US sample in Study 1.

Participants stressed the importance of communication/honesty and undertaking (new) activities with their beloved during long-term relationships. Communication/honesty was mostly used for maintaining long-term relationships. The break-up group used undertaking (new) activities with the beloved mostly to prevent love feelings from declining, while the relationship group used this strategy both to maintain their relationship and to prevent love feelings from declining. Strategies such as expressing love feelings to the beloved, spending (quality) time with the beloved, and loving unconditionally/making compromises were mentioned by some participants. The latter was used more for maintaining long-term relationships than for preventing love feelings from declining. Both reappraisal strategies (i.e., focusing on positive aspects of the beloved/relationship and thinking about positive future scenarios), trust, and spending time apart from the beloved were mentioned by some participants. Two participants specifically stated that love feelings would not decline if the relationship was good and/or that they would end the relationship if love feelings would decline. Other than the above-mentioned difference in the context of undertaking (new) activities, there were no obvious differences between the relationship and break-up groups. There were no major differences between this Dutch sample and the US sample in Study 1.

To conclude, participants reported to use several behavioral and cognitive strategies in heartbreak and long-term relationship contexts. As in Study 1, some of these strategies were the typical cognitive and behavioral emotion regulation strategies, such as reappraisal, distraction, situation selection, and suppression. As in Study 1, some strategies seemed specific for feeling better during heartbreak (i.e., emotion regulation) or for maintaining long-term relationships, while strategies such as reappraisal by focusing on the negative aspects of the beloved or the relationship and undertaking (new) activities with the beloved were used to down- and up-regulate love feelings, respectively.

See Fig 3 for the infatuation, attachment, valence, and arousal ratings at the end of each block in the regulation task.

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View blocks.

The infatuation ratings after the two view blocks showed main effects of Picture, F (1,38) = 27.1, p < .001, and Group, F (1,38) = 5.6, p = .023. Infatuation was higher after passive viewing of partner than neutral pictures, and higher in the relationship than the break-up group. Attachment ratings also showed main effects of Picture, F (1,38) = 23.9, p < .001, and Group, F (1,38) = 5.6, p = .023. Attachment was higher after passive viewing of partner than neutral pictures, and higher in the relationship than the break-up group. Thus, partner pictures elicited more feelings of infatuation and attachment than neutral pictures in both groups, which shows that the use of partner pictures was effective in eliciting love feelings [ 38 ].

For valence ratings, the main effects of Picture, F (1,38) = 9.9, p = .003, and Group, F (1,38) = 7.7, p = .008 were modulated by a significant Picture x Group interaction, F (1,38) = 20.7, p < .001. The relationship group felt more positive after passive viewing of partner than neutral pictures, p < .001, whereas the break-up group did not, p = .41. Arousal ratings showed a main effect of Picture, F (1,38) = 26.8, p < .001, which was modulated by a significant Picture x Group interaction, F (1,38) = 7.9, p = .008. The relationship group felt more aroused after passive viewing of partner than neutral pictures, p < .001, whereas the break-up group did not, p = .10. Thus, partner pictures elicited positive and arousing feelings in the relationship group but not in break-up group, which confirms that the two groups differed in anticipated ways.

Regulation blocks.

The infatuation ratings after the three blocks with partner pictures showed a main effect of Regulation, F (2,76) = 39.6, ε = .84, p < .001. Infatuation was lower after down-regulation than after passive viewing or up-regulation, both p s < .001. Attachment ratings also showed a main effect of Regulation, F (2,76) = 36.7, ε = .91, p < .001. Attachment was highest after up-regulation, intermediate after passive viewing, and lowest after down-regulation, all p s < .013. Valence ratings showed a main effect of Regulation, F (2,76) = 31.6, ε = .98, p < .001. Participants felt less positive after down-regulation than after passive viewing or up-regulation, both p s < .001. Arousal ratings showed no significant effects involving the factor Regulation, all p s > .26. To summarize, subjective love feelings were modulated in the expected directions by instructed love regulation in both groups. Up-regulation of love increased feelings of attachment, and down-regulation of love decreased feelings of infatuation and attachment. Finally, down-regulation of love decreased the pleasantness of feelings in both groups.

Positive and negative affect

See Fig 4 for positive and negative affect during the regulation task.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0161087.g004

Positive affect after the two view blocks showed a main effect of Picture, F (1,38) = 27.2, p < .001, which was modulated by a significant Picture x Group interaction, F (1,38) = 21.7, p < .001. The relationship group experienced more positive affect after passive viewing of partner than neutral pictures, p < .001, while the break-up group did not, p = .71. Negative affect showed main effects of Picture, F (1,38) = 9.6, p = .004, and Group, F (1,38) = 25.7, p < .001, which were modulated by a significant Picture x Group interaction, F (1,38) = 8.7, p = .005. The break-up group experienced more negative affect after passive viewing of partner than neutral pictures, p = .006, while the relationship group did not, p = .69. In short, partner pictures elicited positive affect in the relationship group, but negative affect in the break-up group, again confirming that the groups differed in expected ways.

Positive affect after the three blocks with partner pictures showed a main effect of Regulation, F (2,76) = 21.3, ε = .94, p < .001, which was modulated by a significant Regulation x Group interaction, F (2,76) = 8.4, ε = .94, p = .001. While the relationship group experienced most positive affect after passive viewing of partner pictures, intermediate positive affect after up-regulation and least positive affect after down-regulation, all p s < .034, positive affect in the break-up group was not affected by instructed love regulation, all p s > .17. Negative affect showed a main effect of Regulation, F (2,76) = 6.4, ε = .74, p = .007, which was modulated by a significant Regulation x Group interaction, F (2,76) = 5.0, ε = .74, p = .017. The relationship group experienced most negative affect after down-regulation, both p s < .008, whereas negative affect in the break-up group was not affected by instructed love regulation, all p s > .67. To summarize, love regulation decreased positive affect in the relationship group, although down-regulation decreased positive affect more than up-regulation. Down-regulation also increased negative affect in the relationship group. Regulation of love feelings did not influence affect in the break-up group.

Event-related potentials

See Fig 5 for the ERP waveforms and Fig 6 for the scalp topographies of the differences between partner and neutral pictures in the view blocks. In all four time windows, there was a significant main effect of Picture (300–400 ms: F (1,34) = 72.6, p < .001, 400–700 ms: F (1,34) = 101.6, p < .001, 700–1000 ms: F (1,34) = 112.3, p < .001 and 1000–3000 ms: F (1,34) = 51.1, p < .001), indicating that the ERP between 300–3000 ms was more positive in response to the partner than neutral pictures. The interactions involving the factors Picture and Group were not significant in any of the time windows, all F s < 1, ns , which indicated that the ERP response to the partner compared to the neutral pictures did not differ between the relationship and break-up groups. Partner and neutral pictures differ in multiple ways: partner pictures were familiar to the participants, elicited emotional feelings, displayed at least one familiar person, and may have displayed the participant him-/herself. Because all of these factors modulate the ERP [ 32 , 42 , 59 – 61 ], it is not surprising that the ERP difference between partner and neutral pictures is so extended in time and topography, and similar between the two groups. Please note that the up- and down-regulation effects of interest discussed below involve comparisons between up- and down-regulation of responses to the partner pictures only.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0161087.g005

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0161087.g006

See Fig 5 for the ERP waveforms and Fig 7 for the scalp topographies of the differences between regulation and view conditions. In the 300–400 ms time window, there were a main effect of Regulation, F (2,68) = 4.4, ε = .96, p = .018, and a Regulation x Caudality interaction, F (4,136) = 3.7, ε = .62, p = .020. The ERP was more positive for up-regulation than passive viewing at Cz and Pz, both p s < .004. In the 400–700 ms time window, there was a Regulation x Group x Caudality interaction, F (4,136) = 4.9, ε = .72, p = .004, but none of the post hoc tests were significant. In the 700–1000 ms, there were Regulation x Caudality, F (4,136) = 5.8, ε = .65, p = .002, and Regulation x Group x Caudality, F (4,136) = 5.2, ε = .65, p = .004, interactions. In the relationship group, the ERP was less positive for up- and down-regulation than passive viewing at Pz, both p s < .002. In the break-up group, none of the post hoc tests were significant. In the 1000–3000 ms time window, there was a Regulation x Group x Caudality interaction, F (4,136) = 2.7, ε = .78, p = .048. In the relationship group, the ERP was less positive for down-regulation than passive viewing at Cz and Pz, both p s < .041, and for up-regulation than passive viewing at Pz, p = .005. In the break-up group, none of the post hoc tests were significant. Inspection of the data revealed that even though the break-up group showed a less positive ERP for down-regulation at Cz (and at Pz to a lesser extent), the variation in ERP amplitudes was larger in the break-up group (down-regulation effect at Cz = -1.7 μV, SD = 4.0) than the relationship group (down-regulation effect at Cz = -1.6 μV, SD = 3.0), which explains why the effect did not reach significance in the break-up group.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0161087.g007

To explore any associations between the LPP amplitude and self-reports measures, Pearson correlation coefficients were computed between regulation effects in the LPP amplitude and regulation effects in infatuation ratings, attachment ratings, valence ratings, arousal ratings, positive affect, and negative affect, across groups. Because the regulation effects were largest at electrodes Cz and/or Pz, LPP regulation effects were averaged across these two electrodes. In the 700–1000 ms time window, the up-regulation effect in the LPP amplitude was negatively correlated with the up-regulation effect in negative affect, r (34) = -.40, p = .015, see Fig 8 . This correlation was not inflated by the possibly outlying data point (i.e., up-regulation effect in negative affect = 1.5), because the correlation was even greater and more significant after exclusion of this data point, r (33) = -.44, p = .008. As can be seen in Fig 8 , the more participants showed an enhanced LPP in response to up-regulation compared to passive viewing between 700–1000 ms, the more their negative affect decreased as a result of love up-regulation. The other correlations between the up-regulation effects in the LPP amplitude in any of the time windows and the up-regulation effects in self-reports were not significant, -.31 < all r s(34) < .32, all p s > .063. None of the down-regulation effects in the LPP amplitude in any of the time windows were significantly correlated with down-regulation effects in self-reports, -.20 < all r s(34) < .24, all p s > .17.

A negative up-regulation effect in negative affect means a reduction in negative affect due to love up-regulation. A positive up-regulation effect in the LPP amplitude means that the LPP was enhanced for love up-regulation.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0161087.g008

To summarize, up-regulation elicited a more positive ERP than passive viewing at midline centro-parietal electrodes between 300–400 ms. In addition, up- and down-regulation elicited a less positive ERP than passive viewing mostly at midline parietal electrodes between 700–3000 ms in the relationship group. The more love up-regulation enhanced the LPP amplitude between 700–1000 ms, the greater the decrease in negative affect by love up-regulation.

Because love feelings may be more or less intense than desired, it would be helpful if people could up- and down-regulate feelings of romantic love at will. In two studies, we examined preconceptions about, strategies for, and the feasibility of love regulation.

As expected, participants had the preconception that love is somewhat uncontrollable, as indicated by their scores on the series of questions assessing the perceived controllability of love feelings. Moreover, a few participants reported that they are unable to decrease love feelings when heartbroken. Some participants even stated that love feelings should not be up-regulated to maintain long-term relationships, because declining love feelings would indicate that the relationship is not meant to be. Research, however, has shown that infatuation (i.e., passionate love) and attachment (i.e., companionate love) typically do decline over time [ 14 , 16 ], so having this opinion might limit one’s chances of having long-lasting relationships. However, the mean score on the perceived control questions approached the midpoint of the scale, indicating that participants did not entirely reject the idea of controllable love. In addition, participants perceived some aspects of love to be more controllable than other aspects. Participants perceived feelings of attachment as more controllable than feelings of infatuation and they felt more in control of the intensity of love feelings than of who they are in love with. Finally, the more participants use the reappraisal strategy to regulate emotions in their daily life, the more they perceived love feelings as controllable, which provides a hint that reappraisal may be an effective love regulation strategy. Nevertheless, the questions about perceived control over love feelings have a couple of limitations. First, the two studies were conducted in different countries, in different languages, and with relatively small samples with different gender ratios. Second, in order to not be too statistically conservative in this explorative study, we did not correct for the number of statistical tests employed. Please note that the tests we performed are not independent, which reduces the chance of type I errors [ 62 ]. In addition, we used two-sided tests even when we had an a priori directional hypothesis. This was done to not increase the chance of Type I errors and to not exclude the possibility of observing any effects that were contrary to the hypothesis, again, because of the exploratory nature of the study. Finally, to the extent that the measures in Studies 1 and 2 overlapped, we base the conclusions above only on findings that replicated in both studies. This greatly reduces the chance that our conclusions are based on country-, language-, or gender-specific effects, or on spurious findings. It would be interesting to test whether perceived control over love feelings varies between regulation directions (i.e., whether people think it is easier to down-regulate love than to up-regulate love, or vice versa) in future studies.

We asked participants what they typically do or think when they are heartbroken and when maintaining long-term relationships. Participants reported the use of prototypical emotion regulation strategies such as reappraisal, distraction, and situation selection. Only one participant mentioned using suppression. Research has shown that expression suppression does not actually alter the intensity of feelings and that it has negative effects on cognitive and social functioning [ 21 ], so it might not be an adaptive strategy for regulating love feelings.

Importantly, responses to the questions suggested that there was a dissociation in the use of certain strategies for regulating actual love feelings (i.e., love regulation) versus feeling better during heartbreak (i.e., emotion regulation) or maintaining long-term relationships. In the context of heartbreak, reappraisal was often used, especially to decrease love feelings rather than to feel better. In contrast, distraction was used during heartbreak more to feel better than to decrease love feelings. It has been shown that people prefer to use distraction over reappraisal in situations in which emotions are very intense [ 63 ], which is often the case during heartbreak. Reappraisal may be more advantageous in the long run though, because decreasing love feelings might help people to move on after a break-up.

Some participants reported avoiding beloved-related cues, such as pictures or conversations, when heartbroken, which is a situation selection strategy [ 21 ]. It has been proposed that romantic love shows parallels to drug addiction [ 2 , 64 ]. Beloved-related cues elicit love feelings [ 38 ], just like drug-related cues increase drug craving [ 65 ], so avoiding beloved-related cues may reduce ‘craving’ for the beloved in the short term. However, one type of treatment for substance dependence and other mental disorders is exposure therapy, which is based on the mechanism of extinction [ 66 ]. Because avoidance of beloved-related cues might prevent extinction of the love feelings, it may not be a suitable strategy for down-regulating love feelings in the longer term.

In the context of long-term relationships, participants often mentioned the importance of communication/honesty and of undertaking (new) activities with their beloved. While communication/honesty was used more to maintain long-term relationships than to prevent love from declining, undertaking (new) activities with the beloved was mostly used to prevent love from declining. Previous work suggests that doing exciting things with the beloved may indeed be a successful strategy for love up-regulation [ 67 , 68 ]. Correspondingly, research on long-term romantic love has shown that married couples who engaged in novel and challenging activities together reported increases in love, closeness, and relationship quality [ 69 , 70 ]. Thus, undertaking novel and exciting activities with the beloved, which is a situation selection strategy [ 21 ], may be an effective behavioral strategy for up-regulating love feelings. Surprisingly, reappraisal was mentioned only infrequently in the context of maintaining long-term relationships. Given that reappraisal is an effective and healthy emotion regulation strategy [ 21 , 22 ], it may be an adaptive strategy to prevent love feelings from declining in long-term relationships.

The four open questions about the use of behavioral and cognitive strategies in the contexts of heartbreak and long-term relationships have some limitations. First, these data were analyzed qualitatively rather than quantitatively. Second, the other questionnaires and tasks used in both studies restricted the samples to participants who were in love (Study 1), who were in a romantic relationship, or who had recently experienced a romantic break-up (Study 2). Therefore, participants will have answered questions that did not match their current status (e.g., answering questions about heartbreak while in a happy relationship) or prior experience (i.e., some participants may have never been heartbroken or in a long-term relationship, in which case they replied what they think they would do in those circumstances). It is important to note that these four strategy questions were used more to explore what types of strategies people employ in their love life to aid the design of future studies on love regulation rather than to provide a stringent test of a priori hypotheses. Nevertheless, the current findings await confirmation in future studies with quantitative analyses and matching of questions with prior experience and/or current status.

In the four open strategy questions, we did not ask participants about the effectiveness of the strategies they listed. In Study 2, in contrast, we did assess the effectiveness of explicit love up- and down-regulation using the cognitive reappraisal strategy. We measured regulation success by asking participants how much infatuation and attachment they experienced after each regulation condition, because self-report is the only way to assess phenomenological experience [ 39 ]. When instructed to up-regulate love feelings by thinking about positive aspects of the partner or the relationship or imagining positive future scenarios, participants reported increased levels of attachment. Although love up-regulation numerically increased feelings of infatuation, this effect was not statistically significant. Thus, love up-regulation using reappraisal may be more successful for up-regulating attachment than infatuation. Future research could test whether other strategies may be more effective for up-regulating infatuations levels. Because long-term relationships are threatened by diminishing levels of infatuation and attachment over time [ 14 , 16 ], up-regulation of love feelings might help to stabilize long-term relationships. Although it has been shown before that people idealize their beloved [ 32 , 33 ] and that partner idealization is associated with greater relationship satisfaction [ 34 ], the current study is unique in showing that people are capable of up-regulating their love feelings deliberately and intentionally.

When instructed to down-regulate love feelings by thinking about negative aspects of the partner or the relationship or imagining negative future scenarios, participants reported decreased levels of infatuation and attachment, as expected. This has important implications for people whose love feelings are stronger than desired. For example, this finding suggests that after the dissolution of a long-term relationship, when levels of attachments are presumably higher than levels of infatuation [ 14 ], love regulation using reappraisal may be used to cope with the break-up by decreasing feelings of attachment. In addition, the current findings suggest that love down-regulation using reappraisal may be used to decrease feelings of infatuation, for example when early stage love feelings are unreciprocated or when someone develops a crush on someone else than their partner. Although previous studies have shown that people can implicitly derogate the attractiveness of people other than the current partner [ 71 , 72 ], the current investigation is unique because it reveals that people can deliberately down-regulate their love feelings for their (ex-)partner.

Because self-reports are the only way to assess subjective feelings [ 39 ], they are often used in behavioral and neuroimaging studies on emotion regulation as a way to assess regulation success (e.g., [ 49 , 57 , 73 , 74 ]). However, self-reports do suffer from desirability biases and demand characteristics [ 40 , 41 ]. Participants were not informed of the exact research purpose or hypothesis before testing, but they were instructed to increase or decrease their love feelings using cognitive reappraisal. So when they were asked to rate infatuation and attachment levels at the end of each block, their responses may have been biased by their perception of the study’s hypothesis. Still, the instructions mentioned ‘love feelings’ whereas the ratings mentioned ‘infatuation’ and ‘attachment’, which may have made our expectations a little less obvious. Also, even though we did not have different expectations about the feasibility of increasing and decreasing love, and participants had no reason to assume we had, the up-regulation effects in self-reported infatuation and attachment were numerically smaller (0.1 to 0.3 points on a 1–5 scale) than the down-regulation effects (0.5 to 1.0 points on a 1–5 scale), which makes it less likely that participants responded according to a perceived hypothesis rather than according to their feelings. Nevertheless, the current results await replication in studies in which the hypothesis would be more obscure to participants. This could for example be established by instructing participants to think about positive/negative aspects or future scenarios without mentioning that this is supposed to change the intensity of their love feelings. Also, note that the self-reports regarding valence, arousal, positive affect, and negative affect discussed next are less susceptible to demand characteristics since participants were not instructed to change how positive, negative, or aroused they felt.

Because it is important to dissociate the concept of love regulation from the well-established concept of emotion regulation, we asked participants how negative or positive they felt after each regulation condition. Participants who were in a romantic relationship with their beloved experienced more unpleasant feelings, less positive affect, and more negative affect following love down-regulation. This was expected, as down-regulation of love feelings for a current long-term partner is usually undesirable. However, also participants who had recently experienced a break-up unexpectedly experienced more unpleasant feelings after love down-regulation. It may be that love down-regulation by focusing on negative aspects of the partner or the relationship or imagining negative future scenarios makes people feel bad because it involves negative thoughts. Although the current study did not study the long-term effects of love down-regulation using reappraisal, it has recently been shown that thinking negative thoughts about the relationship has adaptive features when recovering from a romantic break-up [ 75 ]. So, it is important to investigate both the short- and the long-term effects of love regulation, as those may be dissociated.

Love up-regulation resulted in decreased positive affect in participants who were in a relationship, which was unexpected. This may have occurred because of the effort it takes to apply cognitive reappraisal [ 18 ]. It could be that people who are in a happy relationship (as indicated by self-reported relationship quality) may prefer to just look at their partner, rather than to have to come up with positive aspects of the partner or the relationship, or positive future scenarios on demand. We did not test the long-term effects of love regulation, but it might be that even though it may be cumbersome at this moment to use reappraisal to up-regulate love feelings, it may have beneficial long-term effects in the context of romantic relationships. Future studies are needed to replicate this unexpected effect, to determine why it occurs, to explore if and how it can be reduced, and to test if it is perhaps accompanied by an advantageous long-term effect. Even though love up-regulation resulting in decreased positive affect in participants who were in a relationship is in contrast to the hypothesis, it does show that participants were not just regulating their emotions. In that case, love up-regulation would have resulted in more positive feelings in both groups. This suggests that it is important to distinguish between the effects of love regulation on love feelings and on affect, as a desired effect in love feelings might not result in better affect in the short run.

Love regulation did not change subjective arousal (cf. [ 76 ]. It could be that the five-point rating scale we used was too coarse to detect any changes in arousal due to love regulation. It may be better to use a finer scale in future studies. Alternatively or additionally, recent work has shown that reappraising anxiety as excitement (i.e., changing the valence from negative to positive) improved performance in anxiety-provoking tasks compared to trying to calm down (i.e., reducing arousal) [ 77 ], so it may be more beneficial to change valence rather than arousal when regulating love feelings. More research is needed to test this suggestion.

Unlike the self-reported infatuation and attachment levels, the LPP amplitude is not a direct measure of love intensity. The advantage of the LPP amplitude over self-reported feelings is that it is not susceptible to social desirability biases and demand characteristics. Because the LPP amplitude is typically enhanced in response to both positive and negative stimuli, the LPP does not reflect whether a stimulus elicits positive or negative feelings. Instead, the LPP amplitude has been used as an objective measure of regulation success [ 19 ] because it reflects the affective and motivational significance of a stimulus and the resulting motivated attention instead [ 42 ]. So, the LPP amplitude in response to a picture of the partner indicates how emotionally or motivationally significant the partner is and how much attention is being paid to him/her. The instruction to up-regulate love feelings resulted in a more positive ERP between 300–400 ms (cf. [ 27 ]. The latency and the midline centroparietal topography of this regulation effect confirms that regulation instructions modulated the LPP component [ 42 ]. The enhanced LPP indicates that love up-regulation enhances the affective and motivational significance of, and the resulting motivated attention to the (ex-)partner. Because stronger love feelings would result in enhanced significance of the partner, the enhanced LPP with love up-regulation corroborates the self-report finding that people are able to up-regulate their love feelings deliberately.

Love down-regulation decreased the LPP amplitude between 700–3000 ms in participants who were in a romantic relationship, which indicates that love down-regulation reduced the affective and motivational significance of, and the resulting motivated attention to the partner. Because weaker love feelings would result in reduced significance of the partner, the reduced LPP with love down-regulation corroborates the self-report finding that people are able to down-regulate their love feelings deliberately. It is important to note that the ERP reflects brain activation elicited by events, which are the presentations of partner and neutral pictures in this case. A reduced LPP amplitude by down-regulation is therefore not at odds with the increased self-reported negative affect at the end of the down-regulation block. That is, a reduced affective and motivational significance of, and motivated attention to the partner pictures (as reflected by the LPP amplitude) may very well be accompanied by an increase in general negative affect that is not linked to the 3-sec presentation of a picture and will therefore not be reflected in the ERP (e.g., because the baseline correction removed the effect). It is interesting that the down-regulation effect occurred a few hundred milliseconds later than the up-regulation effect (cf. [ 78 ]), which suggests that love down-regulation takes more time to take effect than love up-regulation. The down-regulation effect in the LPP amplitude did not reach significance in participants that had experienced a break-up, which is ironic because love down-regulation might benefit them more than people who are in a happy relationship. Greater interindividual variation is the likely cause of the down-regulation effect not being significant in the break-up group. This variation may have been due to the break-up group being rather heterogeneous in terms of time since break-up, intensity of love feelings for the ex-partner, and levels of positive and negative affect, since factors like these may affect love down-regulation success.

In contrast to the hypotheses, and to the notion that the LPP amplitude is modulated by regulation instruction according to the regulatory goal [ 19 ], the LPP amplitude was numerically, but not significantly, enhanced for down-regulation between 300–400 ms in both groups, and significantly reduced for up-regulation between 700–3000 ms in participants who were in a romantic relationship. Interpreting the LPP amplitude as reflecting the affective and motivational significance of, and the resulting motivated attention to a stimulus [ 42 ], the significantly reduced LPP amplitude for up-regulation between 700–3000 ms in participants who were in a romantic relationship suggests that, even though up-regulation initially (i.e., between 300–400 ms) increases the significance of, and attention to a current partner, it reduces it eventually (i.e., after 700 ms). Interestingly, the up-regulation effect in the LPP amplitude between 700–1000 ms showed significant individual differences. Even though the LPP was reduced by love up-regulation at the group level, participants who actually showed a more enhanced LPP amplitude as a result of love up-regulation in this time window also showed a greater decrease in negative affect as a result of love up-regulation. Because correlation does not imply causation, this effect could be interpreted in several ways. It might be that love up-regulation only leads to a reduction in negative affect when it is successful (as indicated by an enhanced LPP). Future research will need to replicate this effect and clarify its interpretation.

The unexpected LPP findings challenge the interpretation of the regulation effects in the LPP amplitude. It is important to note that the observed pattern resembles some previous emotion regulation studies that have revealed numerically or significantly enhanced LPP amplitudes for down-regulation [ 27 , 48 , 57 , 76 ] and numerically reduced LPP amplitudes for up-regulation [ 46 ] as well. There are several potential factors that could have caused these unexpected effects in the current and previous studies, such floor and ceiling effects [ 27 , 46 , 48 ], presentation of regulation instructions in a blocked rather than an intermixed fashion [ 47 , 78 ], letting participants choose between different regulation strategies [ 57 ], or switching between up- and down-regulation. More research is needed to systematically test these and other factors to better understand the effects of regulation task characteristics on the LPP amplitude. For example, the first author is currently working on studies testing whether floor and ceiling effects cause the unexpected effects of emotion regulation instructions on the LPP. In addition, future studies could directly compare the effects of presentation of regulation instructions in a blocked versus an intermixed fashion, and the effects of letting participants choose between different regulation strategies versus instructing them to use one particular strategy. In addition, it would be informative to compare the effects of having participants perform both up- and down-regulation in a testing session versus only one of the two. Studies like those will provide more information about what exactly the LPP amplitude reflects in regulation tasks. Depending on the conclusions of those studies, the LPP amplitude may or may not have limited usability as a measure of regulation success. Alternative measures that could have merit as an objective measure of love regulation success in future studies are behavioral measures, skin conductance, heartbeat-related measures [ 79 ], facial electromyography [ 80 ], and activation of brain regions that have been associated with love [ 81 ].

To conclude, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first study concerning explicit regulation of love feelings. We argue that love regulation targets actual love feelings and we recognize that that in turn may affect emotions and relationship characteristics. The results showed that people have the preconception that love is somewhat uncontrollable. Nevertheless, they use various behavioral and cognitive strategies to cope with romantic break-ups and to maintain long-term relationships. In the context of heartbreak, distraction was used to feel better after a break-up (i.e., emotion regulation), while reappraisal was used to down-regulate love feelings. In the context of long-term relationships, communication/honesty was important for maintaining long-term relationships, while undertaking (new) activities with the beloved was used to prevent love feelings from declining (i.e., love up-regulation). These preconceptions of, and strategies for love regulation were replicated in two independent samples. Importantly, people were able to up-regulate their love feelings by thinking about the positive aspects of their partner and/or relationship and imagining positive future scenarios. People were also able to down-regulate their love feelings by thinking about negative aspects of their partner and/or relationship and imagining negative future scenarios.

This study, being the first of its kind, provides many suggestions for future research. In this study, we only tested the short-term effects of love regulation. For daily life applicability, it would of course be important that the effects of love regulation are long-lived and/or that people are able to perform love regulation habitually to obtain a sustained effect. Therefore, future studies should examine the long-term effects of love regulation, including its effects on well-being and relationship stability and satisfaction, as well as ways in which love regulation can become habitual. It would also be interesting to examine the effectiveness of behavioral and cognitive strategies other than reappraisal for regulating love feelings, including distraction, avoidance, and undertaking (new) activities with the beloved. In addition, it is important dissociate the effects of love regulation on love feelings and on affect, as a desirable effect on love feelings may be accompanied by an undesirable effect on affect, or vice versa. Love up- and down-regulation have numerous applications, ranging from stabilizing long-term relationships including marriages, reducing heartbreak after romantic break-ups, ameliorating unwanted crushes and forbidden loves, and perhaps even coping with the death of a beloved. In short, love regulation may increase the positive effects and decrease the negative effects of love on individuals and on society and therefore deserves much attention from the scientific community.

Supporting Information

S1 appendix. questions about perceived control over love feelings..

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0161087.s001

S1 Text. Neutral IAPS pictures.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0161087.s002

Acknowledgments

We thank Annemieke van Arum, Mandy van Dijk, Liesbeth Janssen, and Ginger Sassen for help with the data collection.

Author Contributions

• Conceptualization: SJEL JWvS.
• Formal analysis: SJEL.
• Investigation: JWvS.
• Methodology: SJEL JWvS.
• Resources: JWvS.
• Software: SJEL.
• Supervision: JWvS.
• Visualization: SJEL.
• Writing - original draft: SJEL.
• Writing - review & editing: SJEL JWvS.
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Proximate and Ultimate Perspectives on Romantic Love

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Romantic love is a phenomenon of immense interest to the general public as well as to scholars in several disciplines. It is known to be present in almost all human societies and has been studied from a number of perspectives. In this integrative review, we bring together what is known about romantic love using Tinbergen’s “four questions” framework originating from evolutionary biology. Under the first question, related to mechanisms, we show that it is caused by social, psychological mate choice, genetic, neural, and endocrine mechanisms. The mechanisms regulating psychopathology, cognitive biases, and animal models provide further insights into the mechanisms that regulate romantic love. Under the second question, related to development, we show that romantic love exists across the human lifespan in both sexes. We summarize what is known about its development and the internal and external factors that influence it. We consider cross-cultural perspectives and raise the issue of evolutionary mismatch. Under the third question, related to function, we discuss the fitness-relevant benefits and costs of romantic love with reference to mate choice, courtship, sex, and pair-bonding. We outline three possible selective pressures and contend that romantic love is a suite of adaptions and by-products. Under the fourth question, related to phylogeny, we summarize theories of romantic love’s evolutionary history and show that romantic love probably evolved in concert with pair-bonds in our recent ancestors. We describe the mammalian antecedents to romantic love and the contribution of genes and culture to the expression of modern romantic love. We advance four potential scenarios for the evolution of romantic love. We conclude by summarizing what Tinbergen’s four questions tell us, highlighting outstanding questions as avenues of potential future research, and suggesting a novel ethologically informed working definition to accommodate the multi-faceted understanding of romantic love advanced in this review.

Introduction

Romantic love is a complex suite of adaptations and by-products that serves a range of functions related to reproduction ( Fletcher et al., 2015 ; Buss, 2019 ). It often occurs early in a romantic relationship but can lead to long-term mating. It is a universal or near-universal ( Jankowiak and Fischer, 1992 ; Gottschall and Nordlund, 2006 ; Jankowiak and Paladino, 2008 ; Fletcher et al., 2015 ; Buss, 2019 ; Sorokowski et al., 2020 ) and is characterized by a range of cognitive, emotional, behavioral, social, genetic, neural, and endocrine activity. It occurs across the lifespan in both sexes. Romantic love serves a variety of functions that vary according to life-stage and duration, including mate choice, courtship, sex, and pair-bonding. Its evolutionary history is probably coupled with the emergence of pair-bonds relatively recently in human evolutionary history.

Romantic love has received attention from scholars in diverse fields, including neurobiology, endocrinology, psychology, and anthropology. Our review aims to synthesize multiple threads of knowledge into a more well-rounded perspective on romantic love. To accomplish this, we do the following: First, we lay out our analytical framework based on Tinbergen’s (1963) “four questions” for explaining a biological phenomenon. Second, using this framework as an organizing tool, we summarize what is known about the social mechanisms, psychological mate choice mechanisms, genetics, neurobiology, endocrinology, development across the lifetime of an individual, fitness-relevant functions, and evolutionary history of romantic love. Finally, we conclude by summarizing what Tinbergen’s four questions tell us, identifying areas for future research, and providing a new ethologically informed working definition of romantic love.

Analytical Framework

Much work has been done to examine romantic love as a biological characteristic. Numerous reviews have described the neurobiology and endocrinology of romantic love (e.g., Fisher, 2004 , 2006 ; Zeki, 2007 ; Hatfield and Rapson, 2009 ; Reynaud et al., 2010 ; Cacioppo et al., 2012b ; de Boer et al., 2012 ; Diamond and Dickenson, 2012 ; Dunbar, 2012 ; Tarlaci, 2012 ; Xu et al., 2015 ; Fisher et al., 2016 ; Zou et al., 2016 ; Tomlinson et al., 2018 ; Walum and Young, 2018 ; Cacioppo, 2019 ). Two meta-analyses ( Ortigue et al., 2010 ; Cacioppo et al., 2012a ) considered fMRI studies of romantic love. There have been some accounts of romantic love or love from an evolutionary perspective (e.g., Hendrick and Hendrick, 1991 ; Fisher, 1995 , 2016 ; Fisher et al., 2006 , 2016 ; Kenrick, 2006 ; Lieberman and Hatfield, 2006 ; Schmitt, 2006 ; Fletcher et al., 2015 ; Sorokowski et al., 2017 ; Buss, 2019 ).

No one, however, has addressed the full spectrum of approaches used in biology to provide a comprehensive account of romantic love. We fill this gap by framing our review of romantic love around Tinbergen’s (1963) “four questions” for explaining biological traits. It was developed in the context of trying to provide a holistic, integrative understanding of animal behavior, and is an extension of earlier explanatory frameworks, including Mayr’s (1961) distinction between proximate and ultimate explanations in biology ( Bateson and Laland, 2013 ). It includes two proximate explanations, mechanistic and ontogenetic, and two ultimate (evolutionary) explanations, functional and phylogenetic. To illustrate the use of this framework, we refer to elements of Zeifman’s (2001) analysis of infant crying as a biological trait using this framework. An outline of our use of this framework is presented in Table 1 .

Summary of romantic love using Tinbergen’s (1963) framework.

Proximate explanations focus on the workings of biological and social systems and their components, both on a short-term (mechanistic) and longer-term (ontogenetic) basis ( Tinbergen, 1963 ; Zeifman, 2001 ). Mechanistic explanations attempt to answer questions about how behavior is produced by an organism. It is about the immediate causation of the behavior. A baby’s cry, under this class of explanation, might be viewed as an expression of emotion regulated by the limbic system. In our analysis, we ask: “What are the mechanisms that cause romantic love?” Ontogenetic explanations attempt to answer questions about how the behavior develops over the life course. A baby’s cry, thus, might be viewed as a vocalization that changes in frequency and context over the first year of life, and then across the rest of childhood. In our analysis, we ask: “How does romantic love develop over the lifetime of an individual?”

Ultimate explanations focus on the application of evolutionary logic to understand behavior, both on a short-term (functional) and long-term (phylogenetic) basis ( Tinbergen, 1963 ; Zeifman, 2001 ). Functional explanations attempt to answer questions about the fitness consequences of behavior and how it functions as an adaptation. A baby’s cry, thus, might be viewed as an adaptation that enhances offspring survival by eliciting care or providing information about its state. As the fitness consequences may be negative as well, it might focus on both benefits and costs. For instance, the cry may decrease survival by attracting predators or depleting scarce energy reserves. In our analysis, we ask: “What are the fitness-relevant functions of romantic love?” Phylogenetic explanations attempt to answer questions about the evolutionary history of a behavior and the mechanisms that produce it. A baby’s cry, thus, might be understood from the perspective of whether similar behaviors are present in closely related species. In our analysis, we ask: “What is the evolutionary history of romantic love?”

Tinbergen’s (1963) framework has been a useful tool for organizing research and theory on behavior and other biological traits across all major kingdoms of life, from plants (e.g., Satake, 2018 ) to humans (e.g., Winterhalder and Smith, 1992 ; Zeifman, 2001 ; Stephen et al., 2017 ; Luoto et al., 2019 ). It allows us to build holistic explanations of biological phenomena by examining complementary, but often non-mutually exclusive, categories of explanation ( Bateson and Laland, 2013 ). We believe that this approach to understanding romantic love will clarify the usefulness and interdependence of the various aspects of the biology of romantic love without falling into the pitfalls of posing explanations for the phenomena that are in opposition rather than complementary ( Nesse, 2013 ).

Definitions

There are a number of definitions and descriptions of romantic love. These definitions and descriptions have different names for romantic love, but all are attempting to define the same construct. We present, here, four definitions or descriptions of romantic love that continue to have relevance to contemporary research.

Walster and Walster (1978) were among the first to scientifically define romantic love. They gave it the name “passionate love” and their definition has been revised several times (e.g., Hatfield and Walster, 1985 ; Hatfield and Rapson, 1993 ). A definition of passionate love is:

A state of intense longing for union with another. Passionate love is a complex functional whole including appraisals or appreciations, subjective feelings, expressions, patterned physiological processes, action tendencies, and instrumental behaviors. Reciprocated love (union with the other) is associated with fulfillment and ecstasy; unrequited love (separation) with emptiness, anxiety, or despair ( Hatfield and Rapson, 1993 , p. 5).

Hendrick and Hendrick (1986) propose a description of romantic love in the context of describing six different “love styles” ( Lee, 1976 ). They label it “eros.” It too has undergone some changes. A recent version of the description is:

Strong physical attraction, emotional intensity, a preferred physical appearance, and a sense of inevitability of the relationship define the central core of eros. Eros can “strike” suddenly in a revolution of feeling and thinking ( Hendrick and Hendrick, 2019 , p. 244).

Sternberg (1986) provides a description of romantic love based on three components of love in close relationships: intimacy, passion and commitment. He calls it “romantic love” and describes it as such:

This kind of love derives from a combination of the intimacy and passion components of love. In essence, it is liking with an added element, namely, the arousal brought about by physical attraction and its concomitants. According to this view, then, romantic lovers are not only drawn physically to each other but are also bonded emotionally ( Sternberg, 1986 , p. 124).

A more recent definition of romantic love informed by evolutionary theory has been proposed by Fletcher et al. (2015) . Rather than providing a discrete series of sentences, they propose a working definition of “romantic love” that is explained with reference to some of the psychological research on romantic love and by summarizing five distinct features of romantic love. These features are:

• (1) Romantic love is a powerful commitment device, composed of passion, intimacy, and caregiving;
• (2) Romantic love is universal and is associated with pair-bonding across cultures;
• (3) Romantic love automatically suppresses effort and attention given to alternative partners;
• (4) Romantic love has distinct emotional, behavioral, hormonal, and neuropsychological features; and
• (5) Successful pair-bonding predicts better health and survival across cultures for both adults and offspring ( Fletcher et al., 2015 , p. 22).

Despite these attempts to define and describe romantic love, no single term or definition has been universally adopted in the literature. The psychological literature often uses the terms “romantic love,” “love,” and “passionate love” (e.g., Sternberg and Sternberg, 2019 ). Seminal work called it “limerence” ( Tennov, 1979 ). The biological literature generally uses the term “romantic love” and has investigated “early stage intense romantic love” (e.g., Xu et al., 2011 ), “long-term intense romantic love” (e.g., Acevedo et al., 2012 ), or being “in love” (e.g., Marazziti and Canale, 2004 ). In this review, what we term “romantic love” encompasses all of these definitions, descriptions, and terms. Romantic love contrasts with “companionate love,” which is felt less intensely, often follows a period of romantic love ( Hatfield and Walster, 1985 ), and merges feelings of intimacy and commitment ( Sternberg, 1986 ).

Psychological Characteristics

Hatfield and Sprecher (1986) theoretically developed the Passionate Love Scale to assess the cognitive, emotional, and behavioral components of romantic love among people who are in a relationship. There are other ways of measuring romantic love ( Hatfield et al., 2012 ), and some, such as Sternberg’s Triangular Love Scale ( Sternberg, 1997 ; Sumter et al., 2013 ) or the Love Attitudes Scale ( Hendrick and Hendrick, 1986 ; Hendrick et al., 1998 ), measure the same constructs ( Masuda, 2003 ; Graham, 2011 ). The Passionate Love Scale is only valid in people who are in a romantic relationship with their loved one. Regardless, the Passionate Love Scale provides a particularly useful account of some of the psychological characteristics of romantic love. It has been used widely in research investigating romantic love in relationships ( Feybesse and Hatfield, 2019 ).

Cognitive components of romantic love include intrusive thinking or preoccupation with the partner, idealization of the other in the relationship, and desire to know the other and to be known. Emotional components include attraction to the other, especially sexual attraction, negative feelings when things go awry, longing for reciprocity, desire for complete union, and physiological arousal. Behavioral components include actions toward determining the other’s feelings, studying the other person, service to the other, and maintaining physical closeness ( Hatfield and Sprecher, 1986 ).

Romantic love shares a number of physiological and psychological characteristics with addiction. “[T]hey focus on their beloved (salience); and they yearn for their beloved (craving). They feel a “rush” of exhilaration when seeing or thinking about him or her (euphoria/intoxication). As their relationship builds, the lover experiences the common signs of drug withdrawal, too, including protest, crying spells, lethargy, anxiety, insomnia, or hypersomnia, loss of appetite or binge eating, irritability and chronic loneliness.” ( Fisher et al., 2016 , p. 2) A number of reviews have highlighted the behavioral and neurobiological similarities between addiction and romantic love (e.g., Reynaud et al., 2010 ; Fisher et al., 2016 ; Zou et al., 2016 ).

There is evidence that romantic love is associated with increased hypomanic symptoms (elevated mood, Brand et al., 2007 ; Bajoghli et al., 2011 , 2013 , 2014 , 2017 ; Brand et al., 2015 ), a change (increase or decrease) in depression symptoms ( Stoessel et al., 2011 ; Bajoghli et al., 2013 , 2014 , 2017 ; Price et al., 2016 ; Verhallen et al., 2019 ; Kuula et al., 2020 ), and increased state anxiety ( Hatfield et al., 1989 ; Wang and Nguyen, 1995 ; Bajoghli et al., 2013 , 2014 , 2017 ; Brand et al., 2015 ; Kuula et al., 2020 ). See Supplementary Table 1 for information about studies investigating hypomania, depression, and anxiety symptoms in people experiencing romantic love. Romantic love is also characterized by cognitive biases which resemble “positive illusions,” which are a tendency to perceive one’s relationship and one’s loved one in a positive light or bias ( Song et al., 2019 ).

Proximate Perspectives

When applied to romantic love, the first of Tinbergen’s (1963) four questions asks: “What are the mechanisms that cause romantic love?” This can be answered with reference to social mechanisms, psychological mate choice mechanisms, genetics, neurobiology, and endocrinology ( Zeifman, 2001 ; Bateson and Laland, 2013 ). Research into the social mechanisms and genetics of romantic love are in their infancy, but there is substantial theory on psychological mate choice mechanisms and ample research has been undertaken into the neural and endocrine activity associated with romantic love. Additional insights can be garnered from the neurobiology and endocrinology of psychopathology, cognitive biases, and animal models.

Social Mechanisms

Some precursors to romantic love (others discussed below) that act strongly as social mechanisms that cause romantic love are reciprocal liking, propinquity, social influence, and the filling of needs (e.g., Aron et al., 1989 ; Pines, 2001 ; Riela et al., 2010 ). Reciprocal liking (mutual attraction) is “being liked by the other, both in general, as well as when it is expressed through self-disclosure” ( Aron et al., 1989 , p. 245). It has been frequently identified as preceding romantic love among participants from the United States and is cross-culturally identified as the strongest preference in mates among both sexes ( Buss et al., 1990 ). “Whether expressed in a warm smile or a prolonged gaze, the message is unmistakable: ‘It’s safe to approach, I like you too. I’ll be nice. You’re not in danger of being rejected”’ ( Hazan and Diamond, 2000 , p. 197). Reciprocal liking may encourage the social approach and courtship activities characteristic and causative of romantic love.

Propinquity is “familiarity, in terms of having spent time together, living near the other, mere exposure to the other, thinking about the other, or anticipating interaction with the other” ( Aron et al., 1989 , p. 245). It has more recently been named “familiarity” (see Riela et al., 2010 ). The extended exposure of an individual to another helps to cause romantic love and specifically facilities the development of romantic love over extended periods of time. Propinquity, in our evolutionary history, served to ensure that “potential mates who are encountered daily at the river’s edge have an advantage over those residing on the other side” ( Hazan and Diamond, 2000 , p. 201). Given that the pool of potential mates in our evolutionary history would have been limited by the size of the groups in which we lived and the fact that most individuals of reproductive age would already have been involved in long-term mating relationships, propinquity is likely to have played a particularly important role in the generation of romantic love. Until recently (to a somewhat lesser extent, today), with the wide-scale take-up of online dating, propinquity played a role in the formation of many long-term pair-bonds, and presumably, romantic love, as is evidenced by a relatively high proportion of people having met their romantic partners in the places where exposure was facilitated, such as school, college, or work ( Rosenfeld et al., 2019 ). Changes in the importance of certain precursors in causing romantic love may be the result of a mismatch between the modern environment and our genotypes that evolved in a very different environment (discussed in detail below; see Li et al., 2018 ).

Social influences are “both general social norms and approval of others in the social network” ( Aron et al., 1989 , p. 245). This may cause people to fall in love with others who are of a similar attractiveness, cultural group, ethnic group, profession, economic class, or who are members of the same social group. Social influences may, directly, impact who we fall in love with by providing approval to a romantic union or, indirectly, by facilitating propinquity. The effect of social influences is demonstrated in the relatively large number of people who met their romantic partner through friends ( Rosenfeld et al., 2019 ). The filling of needs is “having the self’s needs met or meeting the needs of the other (e.g., he makes me happy, she buys me little presents that show she cares), and typically implies characteristics that are highly valued and beneficial in relationship maintenance (e.g., compassion, respect)” ( Riela et al., 2010 , pp. 474–475). The filling of needs may cause romantic love when social interaction facilitates a union where both partners complement each other.

Psychological Mate Choice Mechanisms

Mate choice, in the fields of evolutionary theory, can be defined as “the process that occurs whenever the effects of traits expressed in one sex lead to non-random allocation of reproductive investment with members of the opposite sex” ( Edward, 2015 , p. 301). It is essentially the process of intersexual selection proposed by Darwin (2013) more than 150 years ago ( Darwin, 1859 ) whereby someone has a preference for mating with a particular individual because of that individual’s characteristics. Mate choice, to that extent, involves the identification of a desirable conspecific ( Fisher et al., 2005 ) and sometimes, the focusing of mating energies on that individual. Mate preferences, sexual desire, and attraction all contribute to romantic love. The concepts of “extended phenotypes” and “overall attractiveness” help to explain how these features operate. Romantic love, as discussed below, serves a mate choice function ( Fisher et al., 2005 ) and these mechanisms and constructs contribute to when, and with whom, an individual falls in love.

A large body of research has developed around universal mate preferences (e.g., Buss and Barnes, 1986 ; Buss, 1989 ; Buss et al., 1990 ; Buss and Schmitt, 2019 ; Walter et al., 2020 ). Women, more than men, show a strong preference for resource potential, social status, a slightly older age, ambition and industriousness, dependability and stability, intelligence, compatibility, certain physical indicators, signs of good health, symmetry, masculinity, love, kindness, and commitment ( Buss, 1989 , 2016 ; Walter et al., 2020 ). Men, more than women, have preferences for youth, physical beauty, certain body shapes, chastity, and fidelity ( Buss, 1989 , 2016 ). Both sexes have particularly strong preferences for kindness and intelligence ( Buss et al., 1990 ). A male-taller-than-female norm exists in mate preferences and there is some evidence that women have a preference for taller-than-average height (e.g., Salska et al., 2008 ; Yancey and Emerson, 2014 ). Mutual attraction and reciprocated love are the most important characteristics that both women and men look for in a potential partner ( Buss et al., 1990 ).

Mate choice and attraction may be based on assessments of “extended phenotypes” ( Dawkins, 1982 ; Luoto, 2019a ), which include biotic and abiotic features of the environment that are influenced by an individual’s genes. For example, an extended phenotype would include an individual’s dwelling, car, pets, and social media presence. These can convey information relevant to fitness. Overall mate attractiveness, which is constituted by signs of health and fertility, neurophysiological efficiency, provisioning ability and resources, and capacity for cooperative relationships ( Miller and Todd, 1998 ) may be another heuristic through which attraction and mate choice operate.

Many mate preferences are relatively universal and therefore are likely to have at least some genetic basis (as suggested by, Sugiyama, 2015 ). While mate preferences are linked to actual mate selection ( Li et al., 2013 ; Li and Meltzer, 2015 ; Conroy-Beam and Buss, 2016 ; Buss and Schmitt, 2019 ), strong mate preferences do not always translate into real-world mate choice ( Todd et al., 2007 ; Stulp et al., 2013 ). This is in part because mate preferences function in a tradeoff manner whereby some preferences are given priority over others (see Li et al., 2002 ; Thomas et al., 2020 ). That is, mate choice is a multivariate process that includes the integration and tradeoff of several preferences ( Conroy-Beam et al., 2016 ). Mate preferences are important because they may serve as a means of screening potential mates, while sexual desire and attraction operationalize these preferences, and romantic love crystalizes them.

Sexual desire and attraction may be antecedents to falling in love and there is evidence that physiologically, sexual desire progresses into romantic love within shared neural structures ( Cacioppo et al., 2012a ). However, although both sexual desire and attraction operationalize mate choice, only attraction, and not sexual desire, may be necessary for romantic love to occur (see Leckman and Mayes, 1999 ; Diamond, 2004 ). Intense attraction is characterized by increased energy, focused attention, feelings of exhilaration, intrusive thinking, and a craving for emotional union ( Fisher, 1998 ) although it exists on a spectrum of intensity.

Changes in the expression of at least 61 genes are associated with falling in love in women ( Murray et al., 2019 ) suggesting that these genes may regulate features of romantic love. The DRD2 Taq I A polymorphism, which regulates Dopamine 2 receptor density ( Jonsson et al., 1999 ), is associated with eros ( Emanuele et al., 2007 ). Polymorphisms of genes that regulate vasopressin receptors (AVPR1a rs3), oxytocin receptors (OXTR rs53576), dopamine 4 receptors (DRD4-7R), and dopamine transmission (COMT rs4680) are associated with activity in the ventral tegmental area which, in turn, is associated with eros in newlyweds ( Acevedo et al., 2020 ).

Neurobiology

Neuroimaging studies (see Supplementary Table 2 ) implicate dozens of brain regions in romantic love. We focus, here, on only some of the most frequently replicated findings in an attempt to simplify a description of the neural activity associated with romantic love and explain its psychological characteristics. Romantic love, at least in people who are in a relationship with their loved one, appears to be associated with activity (activation or deactivation compared with a control condition) in four main overlapping systems: reward and motivation, emotions, sexual desire and arousal, and social cognition.

Reward and motivation structures associated with romantic love include those found in the mesolimbic pathway: the ventral tegmental area, nucleus accumbens, amygdala, and medial prefrontal cortex ( Xu et al., 2015 ). Activity in the mesolimbic pathway substantiates the claim that romantic love is a motivational state ( Fisher et al., 2005 ) and helps to explain why romantic love is characterized by psychological features such as longing for reciprocity, desire for complete union, service to the other, maintaining physical closeness, and physiological arousal ( Hatfield and Sprecher, 1986 ).

Emotional centers of the brain associated with romantic love include the amygdala, the anterior cingulate cortex ( Bartels and Zeki, 2000 ; Aron et al., 2005 ; Fisher et al., 2010 ; Younger et al., 2010 ; Zeki and Romaya, 2010 ; Stoessel et al., 2011 ; Acevedo et al., 2012 ; Scheele et al., 2013 ; Song et al., 2015 ), and the insula ( Bartels and Zeki, 2000 ; Aron et al., 2005 ; Ortigue et al., 2007 ; Fisher et al., 2010 ; Younger et al., 2010 ; Zeki and Romaya, 2010 ; Stoessel et al., 2011 ; Acevedo et al., 2012 ; Xu et al., 2012b ; Song et al., 2015 ). Activity in these structures helps to explain romantic love’s emotional features such as negative feelings when things go awry, longing for reciprocity, desire for complete union, and physiological arousal ( Hatfield and Sprecher, 1986 ).

The primary areas associated with both romantic love and sexual desire and arousal include the caudate, insula, putamen, and anterior cingulate cortex ( Diamond and Dickenson, 2012 ). The involvement of these regions helps to explain why people experiencing romantic love feel extremely sexually attracted to their loved one ( Hatfield and Sprecher, 1986 ). The neural similarities and overlapping psychological characteristics of romantic love and sexual desire are well documented (see Hatfield and Rapson, 2009 ; Cacioppo et al., 2012a ; Diamond and Dickenson, 2012 ).

Social cognition centers in the brain repeatedly associated with romantic love include the amygdala, the insula ( Adolphs, 2001 ), and the medial prefrontal cortex ( Van Overwalle, 2009 ). Social cognition plays a role in the social appraisals and cooperation characteristics of romantic love. Activity in these regions helps to explain psychological characteristics such as actions toward determining the other’s feelings, studying the other person, and service to the other ( Hatfield and Sprecher, 1986 ).

In addition to activity in these four systems, romantic love is associated with activity in higher-order cortical brain areas that are involved in attention, memory, mental associations, and self-representation ( Cacioppo et al., 2012b ). Mate choice (a function of romantic love detailed below) has been specifically associated with the mesolimbic pathway and hypothalamus ( Calabrò et al., 2019 ). The mesolimbic pathway, thalamus, hypothalamus, amygdala, septal region, prefrontal cortex, cingulate cortex, and insula have been specifically associated with human sexual behavior ( Calabrò et al., 2019 ), which has implications for the sex function of romantic love (detailed below).

Isolated studies have identified sex differences in the neurobiological activity associated with romantic love. One study ( Bartels and Zeki, 2004 ) found activity in the region ventral to the genu in only women experiencing romantic love. One preliminary study of romantic love (see Fisher et al., 2006 ) found that “[m]en tended to show more activity than women in a region of the right posterior dorsal insula that has been correlated with penile turgidity and male viewing of beautiful faces. Men also showed more activity in regions associated with the integration of visual stimuli. Women tended to show more activity than men in regions associated with attention, memory and emotion” (p. 2181).

Endocrinology

Romantic love is associated with changes in circulating sex hormones, serotonin, dopamine, oxytocin, cortisol, and nerve growth factor systems. Table 2 presents the endocrine factors which are found to be different, compared to controls, in people experiencing romantic love. More information about the controlled studies discussed in this subsection is presented in Supplementary Table 3 . Endocrine factors associated with romantic love have most of their psychological and other effects because of their role as a hormone (e.g., sex hormones, cortisol) or neurotransmitter (e.g., serotonin, dopamine), although many factors operate as both (see Calisi and Saldanha, 2015 ) or as neurohormones.

Significant results of controlled endocrine studies investigating romantic love.

Romantic love is associated with changes in the sex hormones testosterone, follicle-stimulating hormone, and luteinizing hormone ( Marazziti and Canale, 2004 ; Durdiakova et al., 2017 ; Sorokowski et al., 2019 ), although the findings have been inconsistent. Testosterone appears to be lower in men experiencing romantic love than controls ( Marazziti and Canale, 2004 ) and higher eros scores are associated with lower levels of testosterone in men ( Durdiakova et al., 2017 ). Lower levels of testosterone in fathers are associated with greater involvement in parenting (see Storey et al., 2020 , for review). The direction of testosterone change in women is unclear (see Marazziti and Canale, 2004 ; Sorokowski et al., 2019 ). Sex hormones are involved in the establishment and maintenance of sexual characteristics, sexual behavior, and reproductive function ( Mooradian et al., 1987 ; Chappel and Howles, 1991 ; Holloway and Wylie, 2015 ). Some sex hormones can influence behavior through their organizing effects resulting from prenatal and postnatal exposure. In the case of romantic love, however, the effects of sex hormones on the features of romantic love are the result of activating effects associated with behaviorally contemporaneous activity. It is possible that sex hormones influence individual differences in the presentation of romantic love through their organizing effect (see Motta-Mena and Puts, 2017 ; Luoto et al., 2019 ; Arnold, 2020 ; McCarthy, 2020 , for descriptions of organizing and activating effects of testosterone, estradiol, and progesterone). Changes in sex hormones could help to explain the increase in sexual desire and arousal associated with romantic love ( Hatfield and Sprecher, 1986 ; Hatfield and Rapson, 2009 ; Diamond and Dickenson, 2012 ).

Romantic love is associated with decreased serotonin transporter density ( Marazziti et al., 1999 ) and changes in plasma serotonin ( Langeslag et al., 2012 ), although inconsistencies have been found in the direction of change according to sex. In one study, men experiencing romantic love displayed lower serotonin levels than controls and women displayed higher serotonin levels than controls ( Langeslag et al., 2012 ). Decreased serotonin transporter density is indicative of elevated extracellular serotonin levels ( Mercado and Kilic, 2010 ; Jørgensen et al., 2014 ). However, decreased levels of serotonin are thought to play a role in depression, mania, and anxiety disorders ( Mohammad-Zadeh et al., 2008 ), including obsessive-compulsive disorder (for a discussion of the relationship between serotonin and OCD, see Baumgarten and Grozdanovic, 1998 ; Rantala et al., 2019 ). One study showed that a sample of mainly women (85% women) experiencing romantic love have similar levels of serotonin transporter density to a sample of both women and men (50% women) with obsessive-compulsive disorder ( Marazziti et al., 1999 ), which could account for the intrusive thinking or preoccupation with the loved one associated with romantic love ( Hatfield and Sprecher, 1986 ).

Lower dopamine transporter density and lower dopamine transporter maximal velocity in lymphocytes have been found in people experiencing romantic love ( Marazziti et al., 2017 ). This is indicative of increased dopamine levels ( Marazziti et al., 2017 ) and is consistent with neuroimaging studies (e.g., Takahashi et al., 2015 ; Acevedo et al., 2020 ) showing activation of dopamine-rich regions of the mesolimbic pathway. One study ( Dundon and Rellini, 2012 ) found no difference in dopamine levels in urine in women experiencing romantic love compared with a control group. Dopamine is involved in reward behavior, sleep, mood, attention, learning, pain processing, movement, emotion, and cognition ( Ayano, 2016 ). Up-regulation of the dopamine system could help to explain the motivational characteristics of romantic love such as longing for reciprocity, desire for complete union, service to the other, and maintaining physical closeness ( Hatfield and Sprecher, 1986 ).

There are no studies that have specifically investigated oxytocin levels in romantic love (at least none that measure romantic love with a validated scale). However, studies ( Schneiderman et al., 2012 , Schneiderman et al., 2014 ; Ulmer-Yaniv et al., 2016 ) have demonstrated that people in the early stages of their romantic relationship have higher levels of plasma oxytocin than controls (singles and new parents). We infer this to mean that reciprocated romantic love is associated with elevated oxytocin levels. Oxytocin plays a role in social affiliation ( IsHak et al., 2011 ) and pair-bonding ( Young et al., 2011 ; Acevedo et al., 2020 ). Oxytocin receptors are prevalent throughout the brain including in the mesolimbic pathway (e.g., Bartels and Zeki, 2000 ). Elevated oxytocin could account for many of the behavioral features of romantic love such as actions toward determining the other’s feelings, studying the other person, service to the other, and maintaining physical closeness ( Hatfield and Sprecher, 1986 ).

Romantic love has been associated with elevated cortisol levels ( Marazziti and Canale, 2004 ), although this has not been replicated ( Sorokowski et al., 2019 ), and one study measuring cortisol in saliva found the opposite ( Weisman et al., 2015 ). Different results could be attributed to different length of time in a relationship between the samples (see Garcia, 1997 ; de Boer et al., 2012 ). Cortisol plays a role in the human stress response by directing glucose and other resources to various areas of the body involved in responding to environmental stressors while simultaneously deactivating other processes (such as digestion and immune regulation, Mercado and Hibel, 2017 ). Elevated cortisol levels may play a role in pair-bond initiation ( Mercado and Hibel, 2017 ) and are indicative of a stressful environment.

Romantic love is associated with higher levels of nerve growth factor, and the intensity of romantic love correlates with levels of nerve growth factor ( Emanuele et al., 2006 ). Nerve growth factor is a neurotrophic implicated in psycho-neuroendocrine plasticity and neurogenesis ( Berry et al., 2012 ; Aloe et al., 2015 ; Shohayeb et al., 2018 ) and could contribute to some of the neural and endocrine changes associated with romantic love.

Insights From the Mechanisms of Psychopathology

Despite “madness” being mentioned in one review of the neurobiology of love ( Zeki, 2007 ) and psychopathology being discussed in studies investigating the endocrinology of romantic love (e.g., Marazziti et al., 1999 , 2017 ), the similarities between romantic love and psychopathology are under-investigated. An understanding of the mechanisms that regulate addiction, mood disorders, and anxiety disorders may help to shed light on the psychological characteristics and mechanisms underlying romantic love and identify areas for future research.

Conceptualizing romantic love as a “natural addiction” (e.g., Fisher et al., 2016 ) not only helps to explain romantic love’s psychological characteristics but provides insight into the mechanisms underlying it (e.g., Zou et al., 2016 ). For example, a neurocircuitry analysis of addiction, drawing on human and animal studies, reveals mechanisms of different “stages” of addiction that have implications for romantic love: binge/intoxication (encompassing drug reward and incentive salience), withdrawal/negative affect, and preoccupation/anticipation ( Koob and Volkow, 2016 ). Each of these stages is associated with particular neurobiological activity and each stage could be represented in romantic love. This may mean that the findings of studies investigating the neurobiology of romantic love (which rely primarily on studies where visual stimuli of a loved one are presented) equates to the binge/intoxication stage of addiction. Findings from studies investigating romantic rejection ( Fisher et al., 2010 ; Stoessel et al., 2011 ; Song et al., 2015 ) may equate to the withdrawal/negative affect stage of addiction. Findings from resting-state fMRI studies ( Song et al., 2015 ; Wang et al., 2020 ) may equate to the preoccupation/anticipation stage of addiction. The result is that current neuroimaging studies may paint a more detailed picture of the neurobiology of romantic love than might initially be assumed.

Mood is an emotional predictor of the short-term prospects of pleasure and pain ( Morris, 2003 ). The adaptive function of mood is, essentially, to integrate information about the environment and state of the individual to fine-tune decisions about behavioral effort ( Nettle and Bateson, 2012 ). Elevated mood can serve to promote goal-oriented behavior and depressed mood can serve to extinguish such behavior ( Wrosch and Miller, 2009 ; Bindl et al., 2012 ; Nesse, 2019 ). Anxious mood is a response to repeated threats ( Nettle and Bateson, 2012 ). Because romantic love can be a tumultuous time characterized by emotional highs, lows, fear, and trepidation, and can involve sustained and repetitive efforts to pursue and retain a mate, it follows that mood circuitry would be closely intertwined with romantic love. Additionally, because romantic love concerns itself with reproduction, which is the highest goal in the realm of evolutionary fitness, it makes sense that mood may impact upon the way romantic love manifests. Understanding the mechanisms that regulate mood can provide insights into psychological characteristics of romantic love and the mechanisms that regulate it. No studies have directly investigated the mechanisms that contribute to changes in mood in people experiencing romantic love. However, insights can be taken from research into the mechanisms of mood and anxiety disorders.

While addiction, hypomania, depression, and anxiety symptoms in people experiencing romantic love may be the normal manifestation of particular mechanisms, symptoms associated with psychopathology may be the manifestations of malfunctioning mechanisms as a result of evolutionary mismatch (see Durisko et al., 2016 ; Li et al., 2018 ). As a result, the mechanisms that cause romantic love and those that cause psychopathology may not be precise models with which to investigate the other. Nonetheless, the mechanisms that cause psychopathology may provide a useful framework with which to base future research into romantic love. Conversely, it may also be that our understanding of the mechanisms that cause romantic love could be a useful framework with which to further investigate psychopathology.

The drug reward and incentive salience features of the binge/intoxication stage of addiction involve changes in dopamine and opioid peptides in the basal ganglia (i.e., striatum, globus pallidus, subthalamic nucleus, and substantia nigra pars reticulata, Koob and Volkow, 2016 ). No research has investigated opioids in romantic love, despite them being involved in monogamy in primates (see French et al., 2018 ) and pair-bonding in rodents ( Loth and Donaldson, 2021 ). The negative emotional states and dysphoric and stress-like responses in the withdrawal/negative affect stage are caused by decreases in the function of dopamine in the mesolimbic pathway and recruitment of brain stress neurotransmitters (i.e., corticotropin-releasing factor, dynorphin), in the extended amygdala ( Koob and Volkow, 2016 ). No studies have investigated corticotropin-releasing factor in romantic love. The craving and deficits in executive function in the preoccupation/anticipation stage of addiction involve the dysregulation of projections from the prefrontal cortex and insula (e.g., glutamate), to the basal ganglia and extended amygdala ( Koob and Volkow, 2016 ). No studies have investigated glutamate in romantic love. There are at least 18 neurochemically defined mini circuits associated with addiction ( Koob and Volkow, 2016 ) that could be the target of research into romantic love. It is likely that romantic love has similar, although not identical, mechanisms to addiction (see Zou et al., 2016 ; Wang et al., 2020 ).

Mania/hypomania (bipolar disorder)

Similar to the brain regions implicated in romantic love, the ventral tegmental area has been associated with mania ( Abler et al., 2008 ), the ventral striatum has been associated with bipolar disorder ( Dutra et al., 2015 ), and the amygdala has been associated with the development of bipolar disorder ( Garrett and Chang, 2008 ). These findings should be interpreted with caution, however, as replicating neuroimaging findings in bipolar disorder has proven difficult (see Maletic and Raison, 2014 ). Research implicates two interrelated prefrontal–limbic networks in elevated mood, which overlap with activity found in romantic love: the automatic/internal emotional regulatory network which includes the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, subgenual anterior cingulate cortex, nucleus accumbens, globus pallidus, and the thalamus, and the volitional/external regulatory network which includes the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, mid- and dorsal-cingulate cortex, ventromedial striatum, globus pallidus, and thalamus ( Maletic and Raison, 2014 ).

Norepinephrine (theorized to be involved in romantic love, e.g., Fisher, 1998 , 2000 ), serotonin, dopamine, and acetylcholine play a role in bipolar disorder ( Manji et al., 2003 ). One study ( Dundon and Rellini, 2012 ) found no difference in norepinephrine levels in urine in women experiencing romantic love compared with a control group. No studies have investigated acetylcholine in romantic love but romantic love is associated with serotonin ( Marazziti et al., 1999 ; Langeslag et al., 2012 ) and dopamine activity ( Marazziti et al., 2017 ). Similar to the endocrine factors implicated in romantic love ( Emanuele et al., 2006 ; Schneiderman et al., 2012 , 2014 ; Ulmer-Yaniv et al., 2016 ), bipolar patients in a period of mania have also demonstrated higher oxytocin ( Turan et al., 2013 ) and nerve growth factor ( Liu et al., 2014 ) levels and lower levels of serotonin ( Shiah and Yatham, 2000 ). Additionally, there is some evidence that women diagnosed with bipolar disorder present with higher levels of testosterone whereas men present with lower levels of testosterone compared with sex-matched controls ( Wooderson et al., 2015 ). Similar findings have been found in romantic love ( Marazziti and Canale, 2004 ). Dysfunction in the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis, where cortisol plays a major role, has also been implicated in bipolar disorder ( Maletic and Raison, 2014 ). Cortisol probably plays a role in romantic love ( Marazziti and Canale, 2004 ; Weisman et al., 2015 ).

Neuroimaging studies have implicated changes in functional connectivity in the neural circuits involved in affect regulation in people experiencing depression ( Dean and Keshavan, 2017 ). Increased functional connectivity has been found in networks involving some of the same regions, such as the amygdala, the medial prefrontal cortex, and nucleus accumbens in both people experiencing romantic love and people who recently ended their relationship while in love ( Song et al., 2015 ).

There are a number of endocrine similarities between romantic love and depression. One major pathophysiological theory of depression is that it is caused by an alteration in levels of one or more monoamines, including serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine ( Dean and Keshavan, 2017 ). Altered dopamine transmission in depression may be characterized by a down-regulated dopamine system (see Belujon and Grace, 2017 ), which is inferred from numerous human and animal studies, including successful treatment in humans with a dopamine agonist. In romantic love, however, dopamine appears to be up-regulated, especially in areas of the mesolimbic pathway (e.g., Marazziti et al., 2017 ; Bartels and Zeki, 2000 ; Acevedo et al., 2020 ). This could account for some findings that romantic love is associated with a reduction in depression symptoms ( Bajoghli et al., 2013 , 2017 ). However, these need to be reconciled with contrasting findings that romantic love is associated with increased depression symptoms ( Bajoghli et al., 2014 ; Kuula et al., 2020 ) and evidence suggesting that a relationship breakup in people experiencing romantic love is associated with depression symptoms ( Stoessel et al., 2011 ; Price et al., 2016 ; Verhallen et al., 2019 ). The mechanisms that underlie depression might provide a framework for such efforts.

Dysregulation of the HPA axis and associated elevated levels of cortisol is theorized to be one contributor to depression ( Dean and Keshavan, 2017 ). Changes in oxytocin and vasopressin systems (theorized to be involved in romantic love, e.g., Fisher, 1998 , 2000 ; Carter, 2017 ; Walum and Young, 2018 ) are associated with depression (see Purba et al., 1996 ; Van Londen et al., 1998 ; Neumann and Landgraf, 2012 ; McQuaid et al., 2014 ). No studies have investigated vasopressin in people experiencing romantic love. There is also decreased neurogenesis and neuroplasticity in people experiencing depression ( Dean and Keshavan, 2017 ), the opposite of which can be inferred to occur in romantic love because of its substantial neurobiological activity and elevated nerve growth factor (see Berry et al., 2012 ; Aloe et al., 2015 ; Shohayeb et al., 2018 ).

The insular cortex, cingulate cortex, and amygdala are implicated in anxiety and anxiety disorders ( Martin et al., 2009 ). There is also evidence that cortisol, serotonin and norepinephrine are involved ( Martin et al., 2009 ). The substantial overlap between the mechanisms regulating romantic love and those causing anxiety and anxiety disorders provides an opportunity to investigate specific mechanistic effects on the psychological characteristics of romantic love. Assessing state anxiety and these mechanisms concurrently in people experiencing romantic love may be a fruitful area of research.

There is also a need to clarify the role of the serotonin system in romantic love. Similar serotonin transporter density in platelets in people experiencing romantic love and OCD suggests a similar serotonin-related mechanism in both ( Marazziti et al., 1999 ). However, lower serotonin transporter density in platelets is indicative of higher extracellular serotonin levels ( Mercado and Kilic, 2010 ; Jørgensen et al., 2014 ). This is despite lower levels of serotonin being theorized to contribute to anxiety ( Mohammad-Zadeh et al., 2008 ). One study found lower circulating serotonin levels in men experiencing romantic love than controls and higher levels of circulating levels of serotonin in women experiencing romantic love than controls ( Langeslag et al., 2012 ). Insights from the mechanisms regulating anxiety disorders may help to provide a framework with which to further investigate the role of the serotonin system in romantic love and reconcile these findings.

Insights From Cognitive Biases

Positive illusions are cognitive biases about a relationship and loved one that are thought to have positive relationship effects ( Song et al., 2019 ). The research into positive illusions does not use samples of people explicitly experiencing romantic love, and instead uses people in varied stages of a romantic relationship, including those in longer-term pair-bonds. One study ( Swami et al., 2009 ), however, did find a correlation between the “love-is-blind bias” (one type of positive illusion) and eros scores. We also know that cognitive biases resembling positive illusions do exist in romantic love. Both the Passionate Love Scale (e.g., “For me, ____ is the perfect romantic partner,” Hatfield and Sprecher, 1986 , p. 391) and the eros subscale of the Love Attitudes Scale (e.g., “My lover fits my ideal standards of physical beauty/handsomeness,” Hendrick and Hendrick, 1986 , p. 395) include questions about a respondent’s loved one that resemble measures of positive illusions. Understanding the mechanism that regulates positive illusions will provide a model against which the mechanisms regulating the cognitive features of romantic love can be assessed.

A proposed mechanism of positive illusions includes the caudate nucleus, dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, ventral anterior cingulate cortex, orbitofrontal cortex, ventrolateral prefrontal cortical regions, and dorsal medial prefrontal cortex ( Song et al., 2019 ). These regions overlap with the brain regions associated with romantic love. This suggests that the cognitive biases associated with romantic love may be related to, but are distinct from, positive illusions. Targeted neuroimaging studies could ascertain any involvement of the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex and the dorsal medial prefrontal cortex in romantic love. Such research could help to delineate a mechanism that specifically regulates one cognitive aspect of romantic love from those that regulate other psychological aspects of romantic love.

Insights From Mammalian Pair-Bonding Mechanisms

It is not possible to say with any certainty if other animals experience romantic love. Some certainly engage in pair-bonding and exhibit behaviors that are characteristic of romantic love such as obsessive following, affiliative gestures, and mate guarding (see Fisher et al., 2006 ). While some similarities between humans and other animals may be the result of parallel evolution, an understanding of the mechanisms involved in pair-bond formation in other animals can raise questions and guide research into romantic love in humans. Research into monogamous prairie voles, in particular, has identified neurobiological and endocrinological mechanisms that regulate pair-bonding processes. Drawing on this research, a hypothetical neural circuit model of pair-bond formation (pair-bonding) that includes the ventral tegmental area, nucleus accumbens, paraventricular nucleus, amygdala, hippocampus, anterior olfactory nucleus, and medial prefrontal cortex has been proposed ( Walum and Young, 2018 ). Research implicates oxytocin, vasopressin, dopamine, and, potentially, serotonin and cortisol in pair-bonding ( Walum and Young, 2018 ). Most of these neural regions and endocrine factors have been implicated in romantic love in humans. The implications of this research become apparent when the phylogeny of romantic love is presented.

When applied to romantic love, the second of Tinbergen’s (1963) four questions asks: “How does romantic love develop over the lifetime of an individual?” This can be answered with reference to the age of onset of romantic love, its presence throughout the lifespan, and its duration. Questions of ontogeny also encompass issues around the internal and external influences on romantic love ( Tinbergen, 1963 ; Zeifman, 2001 ). We have also chosen to include some consideration of culture in this section because it influences the causes of romantic love. We find that romantic love first develops in childhood, is experienced at all ages in both sexes, usually lasts months or years, but can exist for many years or decades. It is influenced by a range of internal and external factors and is similar across cultures. The modern environment may influence romantic love in ways not present in our evolutionary history.

Romantic Love Over the Lifetime

Romantic love occurs from childhood through adulthood. It first manifests before puberty ( Hatfield et al., 1988 ), with boys and girls as young as four reporting experiences that equate to romantic love. Adolescence is the time in which romantic love first manifests with all of its characteristic features ( Hatfield and Sprecher, 1986 ), including the onset of sexual desire and activity and, potentially, pair-bonding. Romantic love may be more common among adolescents than young adults. In one study ( Hill et al., 1997 ), American university psychology students reported a greater occurrence of mutual and unrequited love experiences when they were 16–20 years old compared to when they were 21–25 years old. However, romantic love exists at all ages of adulthood in both sexes ( Wang and Nguyen, 1995 ).

There are few studies of psychological sex differences in romantic love. Those that exist (e.g., Hatfield and Sprecher, 1986 ; Hendrick and Hendrick, 1995 ; Cannas Aghedu et al., 2018 ) compare the overall intensity of romantic love and find no difference or slightly more intense romantic love in women than men. To our knowledge, no research has specifically investigated sex differences in duration or form of romantic love although it has been shown that some precursors to romantic love may play a greater role in one sex than the other (see Pines, 2001 ; Sprecher et al., 1994 ; Riela et al., 2010 ). As highlighted above, there are small sex differences in the neurobiology of romantic love ( Bartels and Zeki, 2004 ; Fisher et al., 2006 ) and sex differences may exist in the activity of testosterone ( Marazziti and Canale, 2004 ) and serotonin ( Langeslag et al., 2012 ) in people experiencing romantic love, although findings have been inconsistent. These neurobiological and endocrinological differences may, presumably, have differential effects on the presentation of romantic love which have not yet been identified by research.

The psychological features of romantic love are said to normally last between 18 months to 3 years ( Tennov, 1979 ), although studies have found that serotonin transporter density, cortisol levels, testosterone levels, follicle-stimulating hormone levels, and nerve growth factor levels do not differ from controls 12–24 months after initial measurement ( Marazziti et al., 1999 ; Marazziti and Canale, 2004 ; Emanuele et al., 2006 ). Unrequited love has been shown to last an average duration of between 10 and 17 months, depending on the type of unrequited love ( Bringle et al., 2013 ). In that study, unrequited love for someone that an individual pursued lasted the shortest period of time (10.12 months) and romantic love for someone who an individual knows but has not revealed their love to lasted the longest (18.44 months) in a sample of high school and university students from the United States. This contrasts with reciprocated romantic love that lasted even longer (an average of 21.33 months).

The early stages of romantic love characterized by stress may be distinct from a later period characterized by feelings of safety and calm ( Garcia, 1997 ; de Boer et al., 2012 ). The first stage, which is characterized by approximately the first 6 months of a relationship, has been described as “being in love.” It is marked by all the characteristics of romantic love, including, especially, romantic passion and intimacy. The second phase, which has been said to last from approximately 6 months to 4 years, has been referred to as “passional love.” During this time passion is maintained but commitment and intimacy increase. Passional love gives way to companionate love, passion subsides, and commitment and intimacy reach their peaks. While a description of these phases is informative, it is important to recognize that only one study has investigated these phases and they used a sample of predominately university students ( Garcia, 1997 ). Mechanisms research has not adopted these stages and “early stage” romantic love does not specifically refer to the first 6 months of a romantic relationship.

Romantic love exists on a continuum of intensity but can be classified categorically ( Hatfield and Sprecher, 1986 ). The authors of the Passionate Love Scale ( Hatfield and Sprecher, 2011 ) have developed arbitrary cutoffs for differing intensities of romantic love. However the thresholds that define them are not theoretically or empirically derived and are yet to be widely accepted in the literature.

Romantic love can commence abruptly or build up slowly, although the phenomenon of “love at first sight” may actually be strong attraction rather than romantic love, per se ( Sternberg, 1986 ; Zsok et al., 2017 ). In one study of Chinese and American participants, 38% of participants fell in love fast and 35% fell in love slow, with the remaining unknown ( Riela et al., 2010 ). Another study, of Iranians, found that 70% of participants fell in love slowly or very slowly ( Riela et al., 2017 ). Romantic love can end abruptly but often wanes slowly.

Regardless of the normal duration of romantic love, there is a general inverse relationship between the length of time in a relationship and romantic love ( Hatfield et al., 2008 ; Acevedo and Aron, 2009 ). Romantic love normally gives way to failure of a relationship to form, a relationship breakup, or transition to companionate love. However, in some individuals, romantic love can last many years, or even, decades ( O’Leary et al., 2011 ; Acevedo et al., 2012 ; Sheets, 2013 ). In romantic relationships that last, romantic love serves to bond partners together by creating shared understandings, emotions, and habits ( Hatfield and Walster, 1985 ) characteristic of companionate love and long-term pair-bonds. The transition from romantic love to companionate love is gradual and both types of love share many characteristics. In circumstances where romantic love is maintained beyond the initial few years, obsessive thinking about a partner is no longer a feature (e.g., Acevedo and Aron, 2009 ; O’Leary et al., 2011 ).

Internal and External Influences

A number of internal and external influences affect when, with whom, and how we fall in love. The scenario of attachment, separation, and loss in young children ( Bowlby, 1969 , 1973 , 1980 ) is similar to a “desire for union” and may be the groundwork for romantic attachments in later life ( Hatfield et al., 1988 ). To this extent, romantic love, like newborn/infant attachment, is “prewired” into humans as part of their evolutionary heritage ( Hatfield et al., 1989 ). Researchers “focus their investigations on the effects of mother-infant bonding in order to explain variations in the form, duration, and/or frequency of adult passionate relationships” ( Fisher, 1998 , p. 31). For example, a person’s adult attachment style is determined in part by childhood relationships with parents ( Hazan and Shaver, 1987 ) and this may have implications for the experience of romantic love (e.g., Hendrick and Hendrick, 1989 ; Aron et al., 1998 ). Romantic love is positively associated with a secure attachment style and negatively associated with an avoidant attachment style.

Precursors to romantic love include reciprocal liking, appearance, personality, similarity, social influence, filling needs, arousal, readiness, specific cues, isolation, mysteriousness, and propinquity (see Aron et al., 1989 ; Sprecher et al., 1994 ; Riela et al., 2010 ; Riela et al., 2017 ; see also Hazan and Diamond, 2000 ; Fisher, 2011 ). Research also suggests that conscious variables (personality and appearance), situational variables (proximity and arousal), lover variables (lover finds us attractive, lover fills important needs, similarity, and lover is best friend), and unconscious variables (similarity to relationship with parents, similarity of lover to father, similarity of lover to mother, and love at first sight) contribute to with whom we fall in love ( Pines, 2005 ). The majority of precursors are an interplay between internal and external influences.

Some of the most important precursors to romantic love include personality, reciprocal liking, physical appearance, propinquity, specific cues, readiness, and similarity ( Aron et al., 1989 ; Sprecher et al., 1994 ; Riela et al., 2010 , 2017 ). Personality is the “attractiveness of the other’s personality (e.g., intelligent, humorous)” ( Riela et al., 2010 , p. 474). This represents an interplay between internal influences (the preferences of the individual or what they find attractive) and external influences (the personality characteristics of the potential loved one). Reciprocal liking has been defined above and is a mixture of internal and external influences. Physical appearance, too, is an interplay between what an individual finds attractive, either through genetic predisposition or learned experience, and the physical attributes of the potential loved one. Propinquity has been defined and discussed above and is a combination of internal and external influences. Similarity is “having things in common, including attitudes, experiences, interests, and personal factors such as appearance, personality, and family background ( Riela et al., 2010 , p. 474). This is contingent upon both the individual’s characteristics (internal influence) and the potential loved one’s characteristics (external influence).

There are, however, some precursors that are explicitly internal or external influences. Readiness is “being emotionally or physically prepared for seeking a romantic relationship, such as having just broken up with someone and seeking comfort in a new partner” ( Riela et al., 2010 , p. 475). This can be a largely internal influence that can cause romantic love. Specific cues are “particular characteristics of the other (e.g., smile, shape of the eyes), that are relevant to the perceiver in producing strong attractions. This is not the same as attractiveness in general but refers to highly idiosyncratic features of potential love objects that are specifically important to the individual” ( Riela et al., 2010 , p. 475). These are largely external influences that cause romantic love, although they do trigger a biological or psychological response which is internally determined.

Cross-Cultural Perspectives

There have been a number of books (e.g., Jankowiak, 1995 , 2008 ) and studies that shed light on the cross-cultural nature of romantic love. The sum of research indicates that romantic love is probably universal (although the research is yet to prove this unequivocally) with relatively few psychological differences found between cultures (although cultures respond to love in different ways). An ethnographic analysis of 166 cultures from the Standard Cross-Cultural Sample ( Jankowiak and Fischer, 1992 ; Jankowiak and Paladino, 2008 ) found no evidence of romantic love in only 15 cultures, and this was largely due to lack of data. Validated measures of romantic love (i.e., Passionate Love Scale, Love Attitudes Scale, Triangular Love Scale) have been used in at least 50 countries ( Feybesse and Hatfield, 2019 ). The Triangular Theory of Love is robust cross-culturally ( Sorokowski et al., 2020 ). Cross-cultural accounts of the features and the intensity of romantic love are remarkably similar (see Feybesse and Hatfield, 2019 for a review of cross-cultural perspectives on romantic love). Multiple neuroimaging studies have ascertained that the same neural mechanisms associated with romantic love in American samples are associated with romantic love in Chinese samples ( Xu et al., 2011 , 2012b ).

Romantic love may be thought of more positively among Western countries than other countries and Westerners report falling in love more often (see Feybesse and Hatfield, 2019 ). Cultural differences have also been identified in the role of precursors in causing romantic love. A comparison between Japanese, Russian, and American populations found that culture played a role in the self-reported importance of personality, physical appearance, propinquity, similarity, readiness, isolation, mystery, and social standing ( Sprecher et al., 1994 ). Some differences have also been found between Chinese and Americans ( Riela et al., 2010 ) and between Iranians and Americans ( Riela et al., 2017 ) using similar and different methods. In some cultures, romantic love is suppressed and arranged marriages predominate (discussed below).

Evolutionary Mismatch

The evolutionary mismatch hypothesis argues that humans are now living in environments vastly different from those in which they evolved and, as a result, biological mechanisms may not interact with the environment in the manner that they originally evolved to Li et al. (2018) . Adaptations may malfunction. This has implications for the functioning of mechanisms and psychology. Evolutionary mismatch may influence the occurrence, duration, form, and experience of romantic love. As already suggested, evolutionary mismatch may influence the degree to which certain social mechanisms play a role in causing romantic love. This may have flow-on impacts on the frequency with which an individual falls in love or with whom they fall in love. The increased exposure to potential mates may also lead to greater instances of relationship dissolution and new instances of romantic love than would have been the case in our evolutionary history. Evolutionary mismatch may also influence the duration of romantic love. Under evolutionary conditions, romantic love would usually occur in the context of reproduction, pregnancy, and childbirth (see Goetz et al., 2019 ). This may mean that the duration of romantic love may have been shorter in females than is the case in modern developed societies because they are overcome by mother-infant bonding, possibly at the expense of romantic love.

The form and experience of romantic love may also be impacted by evolutionary mismatch. Technology means that lovers are able to maintain regular contact (e.g., by telephone) or be exposed to images of the loved one (e.g., by photographs) in the absence of physical contact. This consistent exposure may be associated with more frequent activation of neural structures associated with romantic love (i.e., reward and motivation structures) and change the intensity or subjective experience of romantic love compared to evolutionary ancestors who may have been completely separated for periods of time.

Ultimate Perspectives

When applied to romantic love, the third of Tinbergen’s (1963) four questions asks: “What are the fitness-relevant functions of romantic love?” Functional explanations address the fitness ramifications (survival and reproduction) of the behavior or trait of interest ( Tinbergen, 1963 ; Zeifman, 2001 ; Bateson and Laland, 2013 ). We are, thus, concerned with both the fitness-relevant benefits and costs of romantic love. We have outlined the benefits and costs of romantic love associated with five functions based on a small literature on the subject (i.e., Fletcher et al., 2015 ; Buss, 2019 ), reproduction-related literature, and our consideration of the subject. Some of the benefits we describe can be considered functions in their own right (e.g., Buss, 2019 ). Table 3 presents a summary of benefits and costs of romantic love according to five distinct yet interrelated functions: mate choice, courtship, sex, pair-bonding, and health. Our approach is to describe each function, present the benefits associated with each function, and present the costs associated with each function. Where relevant, we have included information about related concepts or theories. We contend that while there is a small amount of evidence for the health promoting benefits of romantic love, the evidence is insufficient to say with certainty that health promotion is a function of romantic love. We conclude this section by summarizing some potential selective pressures and describing romantic love as a complex suite of adaptations and by-products.

Reproduction- and survival-related benefits and costs associated with each function of romantic love.

Mate Choice

Romantic love serves a mate choice function ( Fisher et al., 2006 ). Both men and women engage in mate choice ( Stewart-Williams and Thomas, 2013 ). Assessing potential mates has important fitness consequences for individuals, as the benefits of finding a suitable mate are often higher than mating haphazardly or with a randomly selected mate ( Geary et al., 2004 ; Andersson and Simmons, 2006 ; Jones and Ratterman, 2009 ; Shizuka and Hudson, 2020 ). On the other hand, mate choice is a costly and error-prone activity and, thus, it may be adaptive to focus one’s attention on a particular mate that has been identified as a preferred partner ( Bowers et al., 2012 ). Romantic love serves this function.

Mate choice evolved in mammals to enable individuals to conserve their mating energy, choose between potential mates, and focus their attention on particular potential mating partners ( Fisher, 2000 ; Fisher et al., 2006 ). The focus of one’s attention on a single potential mate is not without costs (e.g., Klug, 2018 ; Bear and Rand, 2019 ). Imperfect mate choice (e.g., Johnstone and Earn, 1999 ) could result from imperfect information (e.g., Luttbeg, 2002 ) or acceptance or rejection errors. Imperfect information might include the concealment of information that has detrimental effects on fitness. Time to assess an individual is important in mate choice and imperfect mate choice could potentially be a greater problem in circumstances where romantic love is quick to arise. Mate choice, by definition, excludes other potential mates and romantic love, in fact, suppresses the search for other mates ( Fletcher et al., 2015 ). This cost can be exacerbated in certain environments such as those within which finding additional mates is relatively easy ( Kushnick, 2016 ). Romantic love can detract from other fitness-promoting goals such as career-advancing activities, physical health promoting activities, or forming and maintaining other social relationships.

Romantic love serves a courtship function ( Fisher et al., 2006 , 2016 ). Courtship involves a series of signals and behaviors that serve as a means of assessing potential partner quality and willingness to invest in a relationship ( Trivers, 1972 ; Wachtmeister and Enquist, 2000 ). One function of the attraction system is to pursue potential mates ( Fisher, 2000 ). People in love often engage in courtship of their loved one with the aim of persuading them that they are a good long-term mate.

The primary benefit of courtship in romantic love is that it can secure a mate that is prepared to commit to a relationship. To do this, both sexes can pursue potential mates, display commitment, and signal fidelity ( Buss, 2019 ). These acts are why love has been described as a commitment device ( Frank, 1988 ; Fletcher et al., 2015 ; Buss, 2019 ). Courtship allows individuals to learn about and assess the suitability of potential mates while displaying reproductively relevant resources ( Buss, 2019 ). Men emphasize characteristics such as resources, while women emphasize characteristics such as beauty, in an attempt to increase attractiveness ( Buss, 1988 ; Luoto, 2019a ). Men, at least historically, also provide signals of parental investment ( Buss, 2019 ). Literature on human courtship from an evolutionary perspective supports the notion of greater choosiness among females, predicted by parental investment theory ( Trivers, 1972 ), for short-term mating and less serious commitments. This effect, however, substantially diminishes for long-term mating endeavors and marriage commitment ( Kenrick et al., 1990 ). The literature also suggests that women are looking for specific cues, indicative of evolved preferences, during the courtship process ( Oesch and Miklousic, 2012 ).

There are costs associated with romantic love’s courtship function. These include the expenditure of a significant amount of time and resources and, if courtship efforts are not reciprocated, embarrassment ( Silver et al., 1987 ). Sometimes, individuals in love might engage in intrusive “obsessive pursuit” of someone who is not interested ( Spitzberg and Cupach, 2003 ). Courtship can be a particularly stressful time for an individual. There are also potential costs because individuals who are courting might find themselves in direct intrasexual competition with another individual who has an interest in their potential mate. Intrasexual competition can be costly because an individual must divert additional resources to this endeavor. An individual bears even greater costs if they lose this competition. Both sexes can be subject to costly signaling as part of courtship ( Griskevicius et al., 2007 ), although men are at risk of higher fitness costs associated with temporally extended courtships, despite this being interpreted as a sign of a good mate by women ( Seymour and Sozou, 2009 ).

Romantic love promotes sex and may increase the chances of pregnancy. Sex is an important part of romantic relationships and initiation into sex with a partner, and a greater frequency of sex, is associated with the earlier stages of a romantic relationship ( Call et al., 1995 ). Sex and pregnancy are not, however, features of romantic love in pre-pubescent children and pregnancy is not a feature of romantic love in post-menopausal women. The nature of reproduction is different in societies where contraception and family planning practices are widespread (see Goetz et al., 2019 , for review of evolutionary mismatch in human mating). In such circumstances, immediate pregnancy may not be a feature of romantic love, whereas sex often is. In such circumstances, romantic love may indirectly promote pregnancy by creating pair-bonds whose members later reproduce.

Romantic love provides sexual access ( Buss, 2019 ). Love is one of the most common reasons people give for having sex ( Ozer et al., 2003 ; Meston and Buss, 2007 ; Dawson et al., 2008 ; Meston and Buss, 2009 ). Given the relative willingness of men to engage in short-term mating compared to women, it follows that sex because of love plays a greater role in providing sexual access by women to men than the other way around ( Meston and Buss, 2007 ). Sex can facilitate a gain in reputation ( Meston and Buss, 2007 ) and both sexes increase their status by having children ( Buss et al., 2020 ). Sex is intrinsically pleasurable and reinforcing, and promotes bonding ( Meltzer et al., 2017 ). In times before the advent of contraception, repeated sex with a partner would usually result in pregnancy and childbirth ( Goetz et al., 2019 ; Kushnick, 2019 ). This is still the case in many parts of the world.

For example, there is evidence that features characteristic of romantic love may be associated with a greater number of children among the Hadza, a hunter gatherer tribe in northern Tanzania ( Sorokowski et al., 2017 ). Higher passion, which is definitive of romantic love (e.g., Sternberg, 1986 ), is associated with a greater number of children in women. The findings are important because the lifestyle of the Hadza more closely resembles the environment in which humans evolved than do industrialized or agrarian societies. As a result, inferences can be made about the adaptive function of passion in human evolutionary history. However, intimacy, another component of romantic love ( Sternberg, 1997 ), was found to be negatively correlated with number of children in women. Instead, commitment, a feature of companionate love, was associated with greater number of children in both women and men ( Sorokowski et al., 2017 ). Romantic love is normally relatively short-lived, and therefore the methods used in this study may not have been ideally suited to investigate the fitness consequences of romantic love. Nonetheless, this finding provides some support for the notion that romantic love promotes sexual access by women and facilitates reproduction.

One study ( Sorokowski et al., 2019 ) suggests that romantic love may increase the likelihood of a woman falling pregnant. Higher levels of the gonadotropins, follicle-stimulating hormone, and luteinizing hormone, and a non-significant but positive increase in estradiol to testosterone ratio in women experiencing romantic love could cause increased ovarian activity and increased estradiol synthesis, which might result in higher fecundity ( Sorokowski et al., 2019 ).

The costs associated with romantic love’s sex function are far greater for women than for men ( Trivers, 1972 ). Both sexes could be subject to unwanted pregnancy and associated parenting responsibilities (although this impacts women to a greater extent). There is also, however, a risk of damage to an individual’s reputation. Women are often subject to criticism from other women for engaging in sexual activity ( Koehn and Jonason, 2018 ), especially if a long-term relationship does not result. Men and women risk damage to their reputation for having sex with a low mate value partner, although men are generally treated far more favorably than women for engaging in sexual activity (see Zaikman and Marks, 2017 ). For women, a period of pregnancy followed by a lengthy period of lactation may ensue, and this is costly in terms of the ability to obtain sufficient resources and protecting oneself from harm. There is also the possibility that the relationship will dissolve following pregnancy and the woman may be left to raise a child without the father’s support ( Koehn and Jonason, 2018 ).

Pair-Bonding

Romantic love serves a pair-bonding function ( Fletcher et al., 2015 ). Pair bonding is both a process and a sate characterized by the formation of “enduring, selective attachments between sexual partners” ( Young et al., 2011 , p. 1). It differs from established pair-bonds and the neural characteristics of people experiencing romantic love differ somewhat from what is associated with longer-term pair-bonds (see Acevedo et al., 2012 , for distinction). Evolutionarily, when sex more often led to pregnancy, this pair-bonding would occur in the context of pregnancy and childbirth (although it is unclear if romantic love can exist at the same time as mother-infant bonding). This is still the case in many parts of the world. This is one possible reason for the duration of reciprocated romantic love to be between 18 months and 3 years ( Tennov, 1979 ) when not interrupted by childbirth. The intensity of specific neural activity in people experiencing romantic love is associated with relationship maintenance ( Xu et al., 2012a ).

Romantic love can establish long-term pair-bonds. In both sexes, romantic love promotes the provision of psychological and emotional resources ( Buss, 2019 ) as well as other types of caregiving ( Fletcher et al., 2015 ). It promotes relationship exclusivity through fidelity, jealousy, and mate-guarding ( Buss, 2019 ). Both sexes engage in additional mate retention tactics such as vigilance, mate concealment, monopolization of time, resource display, love and care, or sexual inducements ( Buss et al., 2008 ). Romantic love also promotes the sharing of other resources such as food or money. This benefit for women would have been, and often continues to be, greatest during times of lactation (see Marlowe, 2003 ; Quinlan, 2008 ). Both sexes can also benefit reputationally, as being in a relationship with a high mate value individual confers status, and individuals who are married or in a relationship are viewed more favorably than single people ( DePaulo and Morris, 2006 ). Men experiencing romantic love engage in actions that lead to successful reproductive outcomes ( Buss, 2019 ), such as protecting partners from physical harm. Men also engage in parenting ( Geary et al., 2004 ; Bribiescas et al., 2012 ), which could potentially result in increased offspring survival ( Fletcher et al., 2015 ).

When people are experiencing romantic love they are usually, but not always, interested in pursuing a “long-term mating strategy.” A long-term mating strategy is one that involves commitment, pair-bonding, and the parental investment (if children result) of both partners ( Buss, 2006 ). This contrasts with short-term mating strategies that do not often require public commitment, pair-bonding, and parental investment of the father ( Buss and Schmitt, 1993 ). Pair-bonding is characteristic of a long-term mating strategy.

The concept of romantic love serving as a commitment device is relevant to pair-bonding, as are the concepts of fitness interdependence ( Buss, 2019 ) and self-expansion. Fitness interdependence is the degree to which two people influence each other’s success in replicating their genes ( Aktipis et al., 2018 ). Romantic love binds two individuals together so that the potential reproductive success of one person is contingent upon the success of the other. The self-expansion model suggests that “people seek to expand their potential efficacy to increase their ability to accomplish goals” and that “one way people seek to expand the self is through close relationships, because in a close relationship the other’s resources, perspectives, and identities are experienced, to some extent, as one’s own” ( Aron and Tomlinson, 2019 , p. 2). Fitness interdependence and self-expansion can be increased in people experiencing romantic love.

There are substantial costs associated with pair-bonding ( Kushnick, 2016 ; Klug, 2018 ). Both sexes are potentially missing out on long-term mating opportunities with other suitable mates and are more restricted in terms of short-term mating opportunities ( Geary et al., 2004 ). There is a potential for damage to an individual’s reputation if they are in a relationship with a low mate value individual ( Buss, 2016 ). Both sexes share resources. Pair-bonding is associated with a reduction in the size of an individual’s support network ( Burton-Chellew and Dunbar, 2015 ). Jealousy can have negative effects upon a relationship ( Buss, 2000 , 2019 ; Hatfield et al., 2016 ) and there is a potential for emotional or physical harm arising from a relationship. People sometimes engage in homicide of their current or former partners in response to infidelity, or as a result of jealousy or a breakup ( Buss, 2000 , 2019 ; Shackelford et al., 2003 ). Some women engage in this behavior, but it is predominately a male behavior, when it occurs ( Buss, 2019 ). Stalking can occur following a breakup ( Spitzberg and Cupach, 2003 ; Buss, 2019 ) or, more generally, as a result of romantic love ( Marazziti et al., 2015 ). There is the potential for grief or depression symptoms following the breakup of a relationship ( Verhallen et al., 2019 ). Changing living arrangements, dividing up resources, and legal costs could all be necessary following the dissolution of a pair-bond ( Bear and Rand, 2019 ). Sex-specific costs include sexual obligations to a partner from women and parental investment by men ( Geary et al., 2004 ; Luoto, 2019a ).

While there is evidence that successful pair-bonding is associated with better health and survival ( Fletcher et al., 2015 ), there is little evidence showing that romantic love is associated with good health. Falling in love is associated with alteration in immune cell gene regulation in young women ( Murray et al., 2019 ). Specifically, falling in love is associated with genetic changes that could potentially result in an up-regulation of immune responses to viruses.

Experiencing romantic love for a recently gained partner is associated with the “active/elated” symptoms of hypomania ( Brand et al., 2007 , 2015 ). These symptoms are considered as favorable, “bright side” symptoms and contrast with unfavorable “dark side” symptoms such as disinhibition/stimulation-seeking and irritable/erratic dimensions ( Brand et al., 2015 ). Despite their association with hypomania, the favorable nature of these symptoms in romantic love may be a sign of good physical and mental health because higher hypomanic scores have been associated with higher “mental toughness,” increased physical activity, lower symptoms of depression, and lower sleep complaints ( Jahangard et al., 2017 ). Additionally, falling in love with a partner is sometimes associated with a reduction in depressive symptoms ( Bajoghli et al., 2013 , 2017 ). A reduction in the number of sexual partners could result in a decreased risk of sexually transmitted infections. There is evidence that romantic love might sometimes be associated with improved sleep quality ( Brand et al., 2007 ; Bajoghli et al., 2014 ).

There are some health-related costs associated with romantic love for both sexes. Despite a reduced risk of sexually transmitted infections being a benefit of romantic love, engaging in sexual activity at all may represent an increased risk of sexually transmitted infection, resulting in a cost to some ( Buss, 2016 ; Koehn and Jonason, 2018 ). Infertility from sexually transmitted infections is possible among women ( Koehn and Jonason, 2018 ). Disinhibited/stimulation-seeking and irritable/erratic, depressed, and anxious mood are sometimes features of romantic love ( Wang and Nguyen, 1995 ; Bajoghli et al., 2013 , 2014 , 2017 ; Brand et al., 2015 ; Kuula et al., 2020 ). In the face of repeated unrewarding efforts or adverse events in the courtship process, depressed or anxious mood could result ( Nettle and Bateson, 2012 ). Romantic rejection can result in a major depressive episode or even suicide (see Rantala et al., 2018 ). Despite evidence of improved sleep quality in people experiencing romantic love in some studies ( Brand et al., 2007 ; Bajoghli et al., 2014 ), one study ( Kuula et al., 2020 ) found poorer sleep quality, later sleep timing, and shorter sleep duration (one feature commonly found in studies relied upon to suggest a sleep quality benefit of romantic love) in adolescent girls experiencing romantic love. This suggests that altered sleep may in fact be a detrimental cost in some people experiencing romantic love. Women have the added risk of birth-related complications and death, which has been common in humans until recently in developed countries ( Goldenberg and McClure, 2011 ).

Selective Pressures

The literature contains three interesting theories of possible selective pressures for romantic love. They are framed in the context of promoting the evolution of pair-bonds, but as will be detailed below, the evolution of pair bonds and romantic love are likely to be inexorably linked. All three theories relate to the provision of resources by males to females. The first theory is that pair-bonds and romantic love may have emerged prior to 4 million years ago when bipedalism emerged and hominins moved into the woodlands and savannahs of our ancestral homelands (see Fisher et al., 2016 ). The need for mothers to carry infants in their arms may have driven them to select partners that were wired for pair-bonds which was associated with provisioning, defense, and other forms of support.

The second theory is that biparental care was a driving force in the emergence of long-term mating strategies ( Conroy-Beam et al., 2015 ). A game theoretical approach contends that females selecting males that were wired for pair-bonds directly increased the chances of offspring survival through the provisioning of tangible and intangible resources to the female and offspring. If biparental care was a driving force in the formation of pair-bonds in humans, it would be a uniquely human pressure, as biparental care has been generally identified as a consequence, rather than a cause, of pair-bonds in mammals ( Opie et al., 2013 ; Lukas and Clutton-Brock, 2013 ). This theory also has to contend with the fact that father presence is often not associated with better offspring survival in societies with little access to health care or contraception (see Fletcher et al., 2015 ).

The third theory is that a need for increased fecundity drove the selection of pair-bonds ( Conroy-Beam et al., 2015 ). Periods of malnutrition cause decreased fecundity. Once again, a game theoretical approach suggests that the selection of males that were wired for pair-bonds, which is associated with provisioning of females, increased the caloric intake of females over prolonged periods of time and, in turn, increased fecundity. This hypothesis is appealing because this selective pressure could have been present at any stage among the four hypotheses we propose for the emergence of pair-bonds in a section below.

Romantic Love Is a Complex Suite of Adaptations and By-Products

In evolutionary psychology, an adaptation is “…an inherited and reliably developing characteristic that came into existence as a feature of a species through natural selection because it helped to directly or indirectly facilitate reproduction during the period of its evolution” ( Buss et al., 1998 , p. 535; see also Williams, 2019 ). This approach is based, rightly, on the difficulty of testing hypotheses about the adaptive benefits of traits in ancestral environments. There is an equally valid approach, however, adopted by behavioral ecologists, that views current utility of adaptations as evidence that can be extrapolated to the past ( Fox and Westneat, 2010 ). One definition that has arisen from this approach is that “[a]n adaptation is a phenotypic variant that results in the highest fitness among a specified set of variants in a given environment” ( Reeve and Sherman, 1993 , p. 9).

Taken together, these two approaches to adaptation support the view that romantic love is a “complex suite of adaptations” ( Buss, 2019 , p. 42). The numerous mechanisms recruited in romantic love, the large number of psychological characteristics, and the multiple functions it serves suggest that romantic love may be an amalgamation of numerous adaptations that respond to a variety of adaptive challenges. However, while romantic love may comprise several inter-related adaptations, this does not preclude the possibility that some components are by-products. A by-product is a trait that evolved “not because it was selectively advantageous, but because it was inextricably linked…to another trait that was reproductively advantageous” ( Andrews et al., 2002 , p. 48).

Health-promoting benefits of romantic love, such as elevated mood, increased sleep quality, and up-regulated immune responses, for example, may be by-products of mood circuitry (see Nettle and Bateson, 2012 ; D’Acquisto, 2017 ; Jahangard et al., 2017 ) or other mechanisms, even though they offer some survival or reproductive advantage. Elevated mood, better sleep quality, and an associated up-regulated immune system probably evolved prior to the emergence of romantic love (see Flajnik and Kasahara, 2010 ; Loonen and Ivanova, 2015 ). As a result, it might be prudent to contend that romantic love is a complex suite of adaptations and by-products.

Further, while the evidence points to romantic love as a suite of adaptations and by-products, it is not adaptive in every context. Romantic love continues to have its reproduction-promoting functions in the modern world in some circumstances, either by immediately promoting reproduction, or indirectly promoting reproduction via the formation of romantic relationships, the members of which later reproduce. To that extent, romantic love is sometimes adaptive (see Laland and Brown, 2011 , for distinction between “adaptation” and “adaptive” and lists of benefits, above, for examples of how romantic love can be adaptive). There are circumstances when romantic love may be maladaptive, however, as is evidenced by the substantial fitness-relevant costs of romantic love detailed above. Cogent examples of this are when a loved one is already in a committed relationship or otherwise not interested, when an individual engages in obsessive pursuit that can have social or even legal ramifications, or when violence ensues.

When applied to romantic love, the fourth of Tinbergen’s (1963) four questions asks, “What is the evolutionary history of romantic love?” Phylogenetic explanations focus on the origin and maintenance of a trait in historical evolutionary terms ( Tinbergen, 1963 ; Bateson and Laland, 2013 ). They put a biological trait in a comparative perspective by focusing on the presence or absence of the trait in closely, and sometimes more distantly, related species. In this section, we describe the theory of independent emotion systems and articulate a theory of co-opting mother-infant bonding mechanisms. We examine the primitive structures related to romantic love that arose in our mammalian evolutionary past and were restructured in pair-bonded species. We also examine the particular history of pair-bonds, and thus romantic love, in hominin evolution, with a comparison to other species of primates, especially apes. Finally, we examine the effect of gene-cultural evolutionary issues with regard to romantic love.

Independent Emotion Systems

Fisher’s ( 1998 , 2000 , see also Fisher et al., 2002 ) evolutionary theory of independent emotions systems delineates sex drive (lust), attraction (romantic love), and attachment (pair-bonds). Sex drive is primarily associated with estrogens and androgens and serves to motivate individuals to engage in sexual activity, generally. Attraction is primarily associated with the catecholamines (i.e., dopamine and norepinephrine), phenylethylamine, and serotonin and serves to focus efforts on preferred mating partners. Attachment is primarily associated with oxytocin and vasopressin and serves to enable individuals to engage in positive social behaviors and connections of a sufficient length of time to satisfy species-specific parenting approaches ( Fisher, 1998 ). Sex drive relates most to the sex function of romantic love, attraction to the mate choice and courtship functions, and attachment to the pair-bonding function. Romantic love shares similarities with the ‘courtship attraction system’ found in many mammals ( Fisher et al., 2006 ).

Co-opting Mother Infant Bonding Mechanisms

While the theory of independent emotion systems ( Fisher, 1998 , 2000 ; Fisher et al., 2002 ) has been the predominate theoretical account of the evolution of romantic love for more 20 years, comparative studies, imaging studies, and assessments of psychological characteristics have raised the possibility of a complimentary evolutionary theory, that of co-opting mother-infant bonding mechanisms. Literature on romantic love, maternal love (of which mother-infant bonding is a part), mother–infant bonding, and pair-bonding ( Bartels and Zeki, 2004 ; Ortigue et al., 2010 ; Numan and Young, 2016 ; Walum and Young, 2018 ) suggests romantic love may have evolved by co-opting mother-infant bonding mechanisms. Co-option is an evolutionary process whereby a trait (e.g., mechanism, morphology, behavior) is repurposed – that is, it serves a different function to that which it originally served (see McLennan, 2008 ).

Animal research, focusing on mammals, and involving, monogamous prairie voles, finds substantial similarities between mother-infant bonding mechanisms and pair-bonding mechanisms ( Numan and Young, 2016 ). “[A]mygdala and nucleus accumbens–ventral pallidum (NA–VP) circuits are involved in both types of bond formation, and dopamine and oxytocin actions within NA appear to promote the synaptic plasticity that allows either infant or mating partner stimuli to persistently activate NA–VP attraction circuits, leading to an enduring social attraction and bonding” ( Numan and Young, 2016 , p. 98). Some of these circuits do not appear to be involved in human romantic love, but there are other similarities that support a theory of co-opting mother-infant bonding in humans.

Several brain regions implicated in romantic love overlap precisely with that involved in maternal love. This includes activity in numerous regions that are associated with a high density of oxytocin and vasopressin receptors ( Bartels and Zeki, 2000 , 2004 ) although it should be noted that in the study that asserts this, participants included mothers experiencing maternal love beyond the mother-infant bonding stage. A meta-analysis of love also found romantic and maternal love shared activity in dopamine-rich areas ( Ortigue et al., 2010 ). Almost nothing is known about the mechanisms regulating the infant side of mother-infant bonding. However, some inferences have been made from animal models which suggest that the mechanisms may be similar to those regulating the maternal side, but without involvement of the amygdala (see Sullivan et al., 2011 , for review).

There are substantial psychological similarities between romantic love and early parental love, of which mother–infant bonding is a part. Extreme similarities exist between romantic love and early parental love in the domains of altered mental state, longing for reciprocity, idealization of the other, and dichotomous resolution of the establishment of intimate mutually satisfying reciprocal patterns of interaction usually marked by a culturally defined ritual ( Leckman and Mayes, 1999 ). Similar trajectories of preoccupation in romantic love and parental love also exist. In romantic love, preoccupation increases through the courtship phase and peaks at the point of reciprocity where preoccupation begins to slowly diminish. In parental love, preoccupation increases throughout pregnancy and peaks at the point of birth where preoccupation begins to diminish.

Mammalian Antecedents

Romantic love in humans is caused by physiological mechanisms whose evolutionary roots were planted in our early mammalian ancestors. These evolutionary roots provided the raw materials that were fleshed out, in evolutionary time, to form the basis of a wide range of social behaviors in mammals, including those related to sex drive, mate choice, and attachment ( Fisher, 1998 , 2000 ; Fisher et al., 2002 ; Broad et al., 2006 ; Carter and Perkeybile, 2018 ; Curley and Keverne, 2005 ; Fisher et al., 2006 ; Fischer et al., 2019 ; Johnson and Young, 2015 ; Numan and Young, 2016 ; Porges, 1998 ). Romantic love may have evolved after the neural circuitry associated with mate choice became populated by oxytocin receptors which played a role in the evolution of enduring social attraction and pair-bond formation (see Numan and Young, 2016 ). “[P]air bonding is the evolutionary antecedent of romantic love and…the pair bond is an essential element of romantic love” ( Walum and Young, 2018 , p. 12).

Examining the similarities between the neurobiological and endocrinological mechanisms involved in mother-infant bonding and pair-bonding in mammals, it becomes apparent that the maternal functions of this suite of adaptations arose deep in the evolutionary history of mammals ( Numan and Young, 2016 ). Their derived, pair-bonding functions would have arisen later in a very small number of species (only 3–5% pair-bond). As such, the neural circuitry and other proximate mechanisms involved in mother-infant bonding in mammals “may have provided a primordial neural scaffold upon which other types of strong social bonds, such as pair bonds, have been built” ( Numan and Young, 2016 , p. 99). We are, thus, on reasonably solid ground to posit evolutionary trajectories of romantic love. Figure 1 presents information and hypotheses about the evolutionary history of romantic love. Evolutionary trajectories of romantic love start with the ancestral mammalian mother–infant bonding mechanisms and culminate in their co-option and modification for pair-bonding in several mammalian lineages ( Numan and Young, 2016 ). Human romantic love results from one of these trajectories. In another trajectory—the one that includes pair-bonding prairie voles ( Microtus ochrogaster )—we know quite a lot about the functioning of oxytocin, vasopressin, and dopamine in facilitating pair-bonding (e.g., Carter and Getz, 1993 ; Carter and Perkeybile, 2018 ; Walum and Young, 2018 ). Although these derived changes to the primitive mammalian machinery may not be the direct evolutionary antecedents of those at work in humans (they are, rather, the product of parallel evolution), they provide a window into how basic machinery can be modified to affect those ends. One substantive difference appears to be the relative importance of the hormonal drivers in the smaller species, and the dopamine-related ones in humans ( Broad et al., 2006 ; Fisher et al., 2016 ).

Phylogenetic relationships among select mammal species that pair-bond.

Pair-Bonds in Primates

Humans are members of the primate superfamily Anthropoidea, amongst whom there is great diversity in social systems, and whose ancestral state likely included complex group-based social relationships ( Kay et al., 1997 ; Shultz and Dunbar, 2007 ). This would have included long-term association between unrelated males and females—which is a far cry from the solitary system that is modal and ancestral for mammals ( Lukas and Clutton-Brock, 2013 ; Opie et al., 2013 ). There are even some members of this lineage who have evolved pair-bonds, such as the marmosets and tamarins (Callitrichidae), and gibbons (Hylobatidae). The similarities between these species and humans in terms of the adaptive suite related to pair-bonds, like the similarities between humans and voles, are due to convergent/parallel evolution ( French et al., 2018 ).

Our closest living relatives are the common chimpanzee ( Pan troglodytes ) and bonobo ( Pan paniscus ) with whom we share a common ancestor just 5–8 million years ago. While bonobos are alluring due to their free-willed sexual nature, common chimpanzees provide a better glimpse into the behavior of our direct ancestors. Although the common chimpanzee mating system is defined as promiscuous, there are, in fact, three forms of common chimpanzee mating tactics ( Morin, 1993 ). The first two—possessive mating and consortships—involve some of the characteristics we associate with romantic love, such as a more-than-fleeting association and mate guarding, but they are much rarer than the third type, opportunistic mating. The comparison of chimpanzees and humans, thus, suggests that one possible hypothesis for the emergence of romantic love is that it originated in their common ancestor (H1 in Figure 1 ). Alternatively, it might be that the common ancestor had an adaptive repertoire that was primed for its emergence when the requisite socioecological context arose. In this way, the evolution of romantic love from chimp-like mating is similar to the evolution of human culture from chimp-like culture.

For some, the origin of romantic love was more likely to have fallen somewhere on our side of the human–chimpanzee split (e.g., Fisher et al., 2016 ). Even so, we are left with the difficulty of pinpointing exactly when it arose—attributable to there being only one extant hominin species from amongst the many that have existed ( Pigliucci and Kaplan, 2006 ) and the lack of direct fossil evidence for romantic love. If we accept the conventional view that romantic love evolved to facilitate pair-bonding, then we can search for clues about the evolution of the former by tracing the evolution of the latter ( Fletcher et al., 2015 ). A transition from ape-like to human-like sexual behavior in our lineage may have pre-dated the emergence of the genus Homo ( Lovejoy, 1981 )—and, thus, we have a second hypothesis (H2 in Figure 1 ). A comparison of sexual dimorphism in Australopithecus and early genus Homo , however, suggests a third hypothesis—that it arose after their emergence (H3 in Figure 1 ). Several lines of evidence suggest that the earliest members of our species, Homo sapiens , pair-bonded but were not necessarily monogamous. Based on an examination of the distribution of mating systems in modern, small-scale human societies and three correlates of primate mating systems ( Dixson, 2009 ), it is possible to conclude that pair-bonds are a “ubiquitous” feature of human mating that can manifest through polygyny or polyandry, but most commonly occur in the form of serial monogamy ( Schacht and Kramer, 2019 ). The final hypothesis, thus, is that romantic love is the unique domain of our species (H4 in Figure 1 ).

The transition to mostly monogamous and some polygynous groupings could have had a transitional phase where polygynous groupings were the norm ( Chapais, 2008 , 2013 ). Pair-bonds may have arisen from a complex interaction between the fitness benefits and costs of mating and parental care ( Quinlan, 2008 ). The transition from ape-like promiscuity to human pair-bonds may have been driven by the provision of females by low-ranking males ( Gavrilets, 2012 ). The direct benefits for females was the food provided, for the males, the mating opportunity. This may have led to selection for males that were less aggressive and more prosocial. The female mate-choice mechanism is a distinct possibility for explaining human self-domestication ( Gleeson and Kushnick, 2018 ).

Gene-Culture Coevolution

Romantic love is a universal or near-universal feature in human societies ( Jankowiak and Fischer, 1992 ; Gottschall and Nordlund, 2006 ; Jankowiak and Paladino, 2008 ; Fletcher et al., 2015 ; Buss, 2019 ; Sorokowski et al., 2020 ). A small number of genetic correlation studies show that there are a number of genes associated with romantic love ( Emanuele et al., 2007 ; Murray et al., 2019 ; Acevedo et al., 2020 ). Other insights into the genetic evolution of romantic love can be garnered from elsewhere, however. For example, life history theory provides insight into ethnic or geographical variation in romantic love and its role in providing sexual access by women.

Romantic love is among the most common reasons female adolescents give for having sex ( Ozer et al., 2003 ). A “slow” life history strategy is associated with eros more than other loving styles ( Marzec and Łukasik, 2017 ). Psychopathology associated with impulsivity is a feature of a “fast” life history strategy, as is promiscuous sexuality ( Del Giudice, 2016 ). Greater impulsivity is associated with a reduced likelihood of giving romantic love as a reason for having sex among adolescent females ( Dawson et al., 2008 ).

As a result, genetic determinants of life history strategies (e.g., Figueredo et al., 2004 ) may influence the occurrence of romantic love. National scores on the life history strategy genetic factor index correlate with adolescent fertility rates indicating that genetic predictors of a fast life history are associated with higher rates of adolescent pregnancy ( Luoto, 2019b ). This ethnic or geographical variation in the genetic determinants of life history strategies may also represent ethnic or geographic variation in the genetic determinants and reproductive relevance of romantic love.

In addition to this, cultural factors may have affected the role of romantic love in mating and marriage decisions—and this has implications for understanding the evolution of romantic love ( Fletcher et al., 2015 ). Arranged marriages are the norm in 80% of 200 forager societies from the Ethnographic Atlas ( Apostolou, 2007 ). Phylogenetic methods to reconstruct the ancestral marriage patterns of our species using the same data found that there were likely marriage transactions (brideprice or brideservice) but only a limited amount of polygyny ( Walker et al., 2011 ). While the ancestral state for arranged marriages was not definitive, arranged marriages were likely present around 50 thousand years ago, when our ancestors expanded their range beyond Africa. So, despite romantic love being viewed as an important component of marriage and mating, it may have played a role of decreasing importance in the recent evolutionary history of our species. Arranged marriages may have limited the role of female mate choice in intersexual selection ( Apostolou, 2007 ). Further, despite romantic love’s decreased role in courtship and marriage, it may have continued to serve a role in facilitating pair-bonding as romantic love can develop even in the arranged-marriage context. The role of romantic love in facilitating mate choice, courtship, and marriage may now be increasing with the decline and modification of arranged marriages in many parts of the world (e.g., Allendorf and Pandian, 2016 ). This may be the result of the increasing sexual equality of women (e.g., de Munck and Korotayev, 1999 ).

Romantic love is a complex and multifaceted aspect of human biology and psychology. Our approach in this review has been to highlight how Tinbergen’s (1963) “four questions” can help us to synthesize the important strands related to the mechanisms, development, fitness-relevant functions, and evolutionary history of this phenomenon. Here, we synthesize what this review has presented in each level of explanation and suggest what this indicates about other levels of explanation. We then highlight some gaps in our knowledge that could be filled with future research and present a new ethologically informed working definition of romantic love.

What Do Tinbergen’s Four Questions Tell Us?

One of the benefits of using Tinbergen’s four questions as a framework to describe a complex trait such as romantic love is its ability for one level of explanation to provide insights into the other level of explanation (see Tinbergen, 1963 ; Bateson and Laland, 2013 ; Zietsch et al., 2020 ). In particular, an understanding of the proximate causes of romantic love has provided insights into the functions and phylogeny of romantic love although an understanding of the ultimate level of explanation provides some insights into the mechanisms of romantic love.

Multiple mechanistic systems involved in romantic love suggests it may serve multiple functions and may be a suite of adaptations and by-products rather than a single adaptation. We found that romantic love is associated with activity in a number of neural systems: reward and motivation, emotions, sexual desire and arousal, and social cognition. It is also associated with activity in higher-order cortical brain areas that are involved in attention, memory, mental associations, and self-representation. We also found that romantic love is associated with a number of endocrine systems: sex hormones, serotonin, dopamine, oxytocin, cortisol, and nerve growth factor. This is consistent with our position that romantic love serves mate choice, courtship, sex, and pair-bonding functions. Reward and motivation system activity may be particularly involved in the mate choice function of romantic love. Cortisol may be particularly indicative of the courtship function of romantic love, which overlaps with pair-bonding. Neural areas associated with sexual desire and arousal and the activity of sex hormones may play a particular role in the sex function. Finally, reward and motivation regions of the brain (rich with oxytocin receptors) and activity of the oxytocin system may play a particular role in the pair-bonding function of romantic love. Our understanding of the biological mechanisms that cause romantic love supports our description of romantic love’s functions.

Mechanistic similarities between romantic love and mother-infant bonding suggest that romantic love may have evolved by co-opting mother-infant bonding mechanisms. This articulates one hypothesis about the evolutionary history of romantic love that complements the predominate theory of independent emotion systems ( Fisher, 1998 , 2000 ; Fisher et al., 2002 ). This is supported by the psychological similarities between romantic love and early parental love.

Evidence of substantial activity of oxytocin receptor rich brain regions and the oxytocin endocrine system in romantic love lends weight to the position that romantic love only evolved after the neural circuitry associated with mate choice, specifically, regions of the mesolimbic reward pathway and dopamine rich areas, became populated by oxytocin receptors specifically receptive to stimuli from mating partners. That played a role in the evolution of enduring social attraction and pair-bond formation ( Numan and Young, 2016 ). This supports our claim that romantic love probably evolved in conjunction with pair-bonds in humans. As a result, we are bolstered when we contend that romantic love emerged relatively recently in the history of humans.

The duration of romantic love also raises questions about the functions of romantic love. It has been said that the psychological features of romantic love can last from 18 months to 3 years in reciprocated romantic love. However, in our evolutionary history, romantic love would have usually occurred in the context of pregnancy and child birth. Mother-infant bonding becomes active around the time of childbirth. We are not aware of any research that has investigated whether romantic love can occur at the same time as mother-infant bonding or whether it must subside for mother-infant bonding to become active. Answering this question would elucidate if the functions of romantic love extinguish once reproduction has been successful. The existence of long-term romantic love also raises questions about the functions of romantic love. It has been posited that long-term romantic love is “part of a broad mammalian strategy for reproduction and long-term attachment” ( Acevedo et al., 2020 , p. 1). This may indicate that long-term romantic love serves similar functions to romantic love that lasts a shorter period of time.

Just as the multiple biological mechanisms involved in romantic love suggests a variety of functions, the functions of romantic love specified in our review suggests specific biological mechanisms are involved. As outlined above, specific functions may be associated with specific mechanisms and this should be an area of targeted research.

The possibility of romantic love evolving by co-opting mother-infant bonding mechanisms raises a number of possibilities in relation to the proximate causes of romantic love. It suggests that social activity associated with mother–infant bonding (e.g., filling of needs, specific cues) may be particularly important precursors to, or features of, romantic love. It suggests that many of the genes and polymorphisms involved in causing romantic love may have been present in mammals since the emergence of mother–infant bonding, making comparative animal research using mammals relevant. It also suggests that further research into shared neural activity between romantic love and mother–infant bonding is warranted.

We contend that romantic love probably emerged in conjunction with pair-bonds in humans or human ancestors. As such, further information about the similarities and differences between romantic love (pair-bonding) and companionate love (established pair-bonds) is needed. In particular, information about any role of the mesolimbic pathway (see Loth and Donaldson, 2021 ) or regions associated with sexual desire in companionate love would help to shed light on the evolutionary history of pair-bonding and pair-bonds. Specifically, this could shed light on if, as has been suggested (see Walum and Young, 2018 ), romantic love and pair-bonds are inextricably linked.

Areas of Future Research

One issue with research into the mechanisms of romantic love is that it has, with some exceptions (e.g., Fisher et al., 2010 ), utilized samples of people experiencing romantic love who are in a relationship with their loved one. Romantic love serves a mate choice and courtship function, and as a result, a large proportion of people experiencing romantic love are not in a relationship with their loved one (e.g., Bringle et al., 2013 ). A small number of studies have directly investigated unrequited love (e.g., Tennov, 1979 ; Baumeister et al., 1993 ; Hill et al., 1997 ; Aron et al., 1998 ; Bringle et al., 2013 ), but none of these investigated the mechanisms that cause romantic love. Studying such people might identify the specific contributions of particular mechanisms to particular functions. For example, the mechanisms associated with the pair-bonding function of romantic love may not be active in individuals who are engaging in courtship and the mechanisms involved in courtship may not be present in lovers who are already in a relationship with their loved one. Research would benefit from considering the mechanisms that underlie related psychopathologies and it would be useful to understand the relationship between mate preferences and romantic love.

Molecular genetics research, such as that undertaken by Acevedo et al. (2020) , could further identify contributions of genes in people experiencing romantic love. Resting state fMRI provide an opportunity to investigate networks characteristic of psychopathology related to romantic love. Research should investigate the automatic/internal emotional regulatory network and the volitional/external regulatory network associated with mania/hypomania in people experiencing romantic love. Further research is required into the endocrinology of romantic love. In particular, further research is needed into the role of opioids, corticotropin-releasing factor, glutamate, acetylcholine, and vasopressin in romantic love. Efforts should be made to combine psychological and mechanisms research. For example, differences in neural or endocrine activity may be present in people experiencing romantic love who display elevated symptoms of depression compared to those who display reduced symptoms. As a result, neuroimaging and endocrinological studies could categorize people experiencing romantic love according to their levels of depression or type of hypomanic symptoms.

Given the large number of fMRI studies, interpreting the neuroimaging literature can be overwhelming. It has been nearly 10 years since the last meta-analysis of fMRI studies including romantic love. It is time for another one that focuses solely on romantic love. There is also a pressing need to attempt to replicate and extend endocrine studies and to specifically investigate the oxytocin system in people experiencing romantic love using validated measures of romantic love. As with many areas of psychological research ( Henrich et al., 2010 ), and specifically in areas related to mating psychology ( Apicella et al., 2019 ; Scelza et al., 2020 ), there is a pressing need to ensure that samples used in research are not exclusively Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic.

Limited ontogeny research has elucidated the mechanisms causing romantic love across the lifespan. The literature that has (e.g., Luoto, 2019a ), has focused on mate choice, rather than romantic love, per se . We know nothing about the neurobiology or endocrinology of romantic love in children or about the endocrinology of long-term romantic love. It would be useful to investigate how the functions of romantic love differ according to age of individuals or the duration of romantic love. Internal and external factors influence romantic love, although there has been surprisingly little research into this topic. It would be prudent to continue to develop a more detailed understanding of the factors that lead to romantic love (e.g., Riela et al., 2010 , 2017 ). It would be useful to better understand the relationship between attachment styles and romantic love. Research should investigate if romantic love can occur at the same time as mother-infant bonding, or if they are mutually exclusive states.

Research into the functions of romantic love is sparse. There is a need for clear, evidence-informed definitions and descriptions of each of the functions of romantic love. It is likely that different mechanisms moderate different functions, and research should attempt to determine the contribution of specific genetic, neural, and endocrine activity to each individual function (see Zietsch et al., 2020 ). The advent of contraception and the adoption of family planning strategies means romantic love now serves more of a sex function than a pregnancy function in some environments. This is particularly the case early in a relationship. Pregnancy may become a feature as a relationship progresses and the fitness consequences of romantic love need to be investigated. Romantic love’s role as a suite of adaptations and by-products should be investigated. There is theoretical support for the notion that romantic love serves a health-promoting function (e.g., Esch and Stefano, 2005 ); however, there is a limited number of studies demonstrating a health-promoting effect of romantic love.

The relative infancy of genetic research, the lack of a clear fossil record, and the small number of species with which comparative analysis can be undertaken, means novel and creative means of investigating the phylogeny of romantic love must be undertaken. There is a need to pin-point the phylogenetic emergence of romantic love and the factors that caused it. To do this, more research into the genetics of romantic love must be conducted, and this should consider the phylogeny of specific genes and polymorphisms (e.g., Acevedo et al., 2020 ; see also Walum and Young, 2018 ). Efforts to assess the contribution of sexual selection to the evolution of romantic love are warranted. Studies of newly discovered fossils can help to identify shifts in sexual dimorphism that are indicative of pair-bonds. Further observational and experimental research into romantic love in hunter-gatherer tribes could tell us more about how romantic love functioned in our evolutionary history. Comparative research still has much to contribute. Research should explore the possibility that initial changes to the ancestral mammalian physiology that led directly to human romantic love arose in response to selection on both mating and non-mating-related behavior, such as pro-sociality (e.g., Barron and Hare, 2020 ; Luoto, 2020 ) or unique aspects of our species’ parenting repertoire. It might be fruitful to further investigate the relationship between romantic love and life history theory (e.g., Olderbak and Figueredo, 2009 ; Marzec and Łukasik, 2017 ). Finally, efforts should be made to elaborate and test the theory that romantic love emerged by co-opting mother–infant bonding mechanisms.

A New Working Definition of Romantic Love

The introduction to this review provided four definitions or descriptions of romantic love. For decades, most definitions ( Hendrick and Hendrick, 1986 ; Sternberg, 1986 ; Hatfield and Rapson, 1993 ) of romantic love have informed research into the cognitive, emotional, and behavioral characteristics of romantic love. The past two decades, however, have seen an increasing focus on the biology of romantic love. Only recently has an evolution-informed definition been proposed ( Fletcher et al., 2015 ). That working definition, however, does not incorporate much of the research that provides insight into the proximate and ultimate causes of romantic love.

We believe that the analytical approach taken in this review has identified sufficient information to justify the development of a new ethologically informed working definition of romantic love. The purpose would be to create an inclusive definition that is useful for researchers in varied disciplines investigating romantic love’s psychological characteristics, genetics, neurobiology, endocrinology, development, fitness-relevant functions, and evolutionary history. It may also be of use to psychologists and psychiatrists attempting to understand the experience and etiology of romantic love in their practice. It should be sufficiently precise and descriptive to both guide and link research. We provide, here, a working definition of romantic love:

• Romantic love is a motivational state typically associated with a desire for long-term mating with a particular individual. It occurs across the lifespan and is associated with distinctive cognitive, emotional, behavioral, social, genetic, neural, and endocrine activity in both sexes. Throughout much of the life course, it serves mate choice, courtship, sex, and pair-bonding functions. It is a suite of adaptations and by-products that arose sometime during the recent evolutionary history of humans.

We situate the study of romantic love within the context of existing human mating literature. Our definition recognizes that romantic love is experienced across the lifetime of an individual, that research has shed light on the social, psychological, genetic, neural, and endocrine characteristics associated with it, and that it occurs in both sexes. Our definition also recognizes that romantic love serves a variety of functions and that these functions may vary across the lifespan. It does not exclude long-term or unrequited romantic love from the definition. Health is not identified as a function of romantic love in our definition despite being considered in our review. If more evidence comes to light, this definition can be amended to incorporate health.

Our definition has similarities and differences with the definition proposed by Fletcher et al. (2015) . This is appropriate given both are informed by evolutionary approaches which differ somewhat. We do not specifically define romantic love as being a commitment device or reference passion, intimacy, and caregiving. In our review, we recognize that romantic love is a commitment device and serves to display commitment and signal fidelity as part of its courtship function. We believe that reference to romantic love’s behavioral activity and courtship and pair-bonding functions sufficiently encapsulate this concept. Sternberg’s (1997) definition of romantic love and Fletcher et al.’s (2015) definition include references to passion and intimacy. Caregiving (e.g., provision of psychological and emotional resources, sharing resources), while associated with pair-bonding, is not sufficiently definitive of romantic love using Tinbergen’s four questions as a framework to include in our definition.

We do not reference the universality of romantic love. While some experts assert its universality (e.g., Fletcher et al., 2015 ; Buss, 2019 ), we believe that the finding of Jankowiak and Fischer (1992) leaves enough uncertainty for it to be prudent to omit this aspect from our definition. Their research has found no evidence of romantic love in fifteen cultures (see Jankowiak and Paladino, 2008 , for update to the original investigation) although this is probably the result of lack of data rather than evidence to the contrary. Once this matter is settled, which could be achieved by further investigating those societies where no evidence of romantic love was found, the definition can be amended. Fletcher et al. (2015) state that romantic love is associated with pair-bonds. We do the same by stating that pair-bonding is one of the functions of romantic love.

We also do not make specific reference to romantic love suppressing the search for mates. We recognize this as a cost in our review, but do not believe that this is so definitive of romantic love to include in our definition. Rather, we believe that our reference to “behavioral” activity and the “mate choice” function of romantic love in our definition sufficiently accommodates this feature. Our definition provides more detail than that provided by Fletcher et al. (2015) by including elements derived from substantial research into the mechanisms, ontogeny, functions, and phylogeny of romantic love. Like the Fletcher et al. (2015) definition, our definition recognizes that romantic love has distinct psychological characteristics and that we know about some of the proximate mechanisms that regulate it. However, as explained above, we do not include reference to the health-promoting effects of romantic love.

As more information about romantic love is gathered, we anticipate the definition to develop. However, we believe that this definition is an improvement upon previous definitions and adequately captures what is currently known about romantic love’s proximate and ultimate causes. It would be useful for researchers investigating romantic love from myriad perspectives. This definition should be critiqued and improved, and we welcome any such efforts from researchers and theorists across the spectrum of academic disciplines.

Our review provides a comprehensive account of the phenomenon known as romantic love. It covers topics such as social precipitants, psychology, genetics, neurobiology, and endocrinology. It provides an account of romantic love across the lifetime of an individual and is the first to propose four discrete reproduction-related functions of romantic love supported in the literature: mate choice, courtship, sex, and pair-bonding. It provides a summary of the benefits and costs of romantic love, outlines possible selective pressures, and posits that it is a complex suite of adaptations and by-products. We propose four potential evolutionary histories of romantic love and introduce the theory of co-opting mother-infant bonding mechanisms. We have identified a number of specific and general areas for future research. Our review suggests a new, ethologically informed working definition of romantic love that synthesizes a broad range of research. The working definition we propose serves to define a complex trait in a way that can both guide and link research from a variety of fields.

Author Contributions

AB conceived the manuscript. AB and GK collaborated on the development of the analytical framework and writing of the manuscript. Both authors approved the final version.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the reviewers for comments that helped to improve the manuscript.

Supplementary Material

The Supplementary Material for this article can be found online at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.573123/full#supplementary-material

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The Psychology of Love

Original Research 07 December 2023 Can a kiss conquer all? The predictive utility of idealized first kiss beliefs on reports of romantic love among U.S. adults Ashley E. Thompson ,  1 more  and  Julia M. Record 1,678 views 0 citations

Original Research 23 November 2023 Relational needs frustration: an observational study on the role of negative (dis)engaging emotions Davide Pirrone ,  1 more  and  Lesley Verhofstadt 1,220 views 0 citations

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Original Research 24 May 2023 Relationship status and gender-related differences in response to infidelity Tsukasa Kato  and  Nobutoshi Okubo 2,141 views 0 citations

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Chemistry Between People: A Sum of Their Connections

Have you ever felt a special “spark” with someone—an intense bond with a potential partner, friend, or colleague? When individuals experience chemistry, they experience their interaction as something more than the sum of their separate contributions.

Research Topic: Love and Attraction

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Endless Love: You’ve Got Ideas About Consensual Nonmonogamy. They’re Probably Wrong 

Podcast: Researchers found that relationship functioning starts to decline before infidelity happens. The lead author of this study, Olga Stavrova, explains these findings

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New research suggests that young adults are instead quite rational when it comes to selecting potential sexual partners.

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Most of us see the connection between social and physical pain as a figurative one. But research is providing compelling evidence that the two types of pain share a common source.

Why Love Literally Hurts

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Oxytocin levels may influence whether our partner's words sweep us off our feet or leave us wanting.

Oxytocin May Put ‘Rose-Colored Glasses’ On Relationships

Using evaluative conditioning, a team of researchers has developed an unconventional intervention for helping a marriage maintain its spark: pictures of puppies and bunnies.

How Viewing Cute Animals Can Help Rekindle Marital Spark

Longitudinal data suggest growing up in a warm family environment in childhood is associated with feeling more secure in romantic relationships in one’s 80s.

Childhood Family Environment Linked With Relationship Quality 60 Years Later

A study of newlywed couples indicates that partners experience a sexual ‘afterglow’ that lasts for up to two days and is linked with relationship quality over the long term.

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Clinical psychologist Dominika Ochnik discusses her research into singlehood and well-being, mental health risks among young people, and her plans to study associations between urbanization and mental health.

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Marital satisfaction generally declines over time, but a brief writing intervention that helps spouses adopt a more objective outlook on marital conflict could help prevent couples from losing that loving feeling.

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Newlyweds who have frequent sex don’t report greater relationship satisfaction than those who have less sex, but their automatic behavioral responses tell a different story.

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As our memories fade, we rely on our current assessment of a person to remember how we felt about them in the past, and this extends to some of the most central figures in our lives: our parents.

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Psychological scientists and other researchers are exploring the ways that online communication is affecting the formation of friendships and romantic relationships.

Love in the Time of Twitter

How did attitudes about race, sexuality, age, or disability change in the last decade or so? Researchers examined more than 7 million implicit and explicit tests for an article published in Psychological Science. In this conversation, APS’s Ludmila Nunes speaks with APS member Tessa Charlesworth (Harvard University), the article’s lead author.

Attitudes Improve for Sex and Race. Disability and Age? Not So Much

If there’s one sentiment shared by all great artists, from Shakespeare to Beyoncé, it’s this: Love is intense. Only in the last century have psychological scientists begun to regard passionate love as a viable research topic.

Passionate Love

The timing of a person's first experience with sexual intercourse predicts the quality and stability of their romantic relationships in young adulthood.

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Researchers could predict speed daters' desire and desirability, but not which two people would 'click.'

Romantic Matches Are Hard to Predict Before People Meet

The allure of smartphones, and their impact on our relationships, might be the result of our evolutionary history, researchers suggest.

How Smartphones Are Affecting Our Relationships

Psychological scientists have found that people in positions of power may have be swayed into misperceiving sexual interest from subordinates.

People in Power May Pick Up Sexual Signals That Aren’t Really There

People tend to project their own level of interest onto prospective partners. This reality seems to explain why men and women misperceive a partner’s sexual interest.

Just Not That Into You: How and Why Men and Women Misperceive Sexual Interest

A comprehensive review of sexual orientation research aims to correct important misconceptions about the link between scientific findings and political agendas.

What Scientists Know—And Don’t Know—About Sexual Orientation

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The Research on Love: A Psychological, Scientific Perspective on Love

Dr. Nina Mikirova

And now here is this topic about love, the subject without which no movie, novel, poem or song can exist. This topic has fascinated scientists, philosophers, historians, poets, playwrights, novelists, and songwriters. I decided to look at this subject from a scientific point of view. It was very interesting to research and to write this article, and I am hoping it will be interesting to you as a reader.

Whereas psychological science was slow to develop active interest in love, the past few decades have seen considerable growth in research on the subject.  The following is a comprehensive review of the central and well-established findings from psychologically-informed research on love and its influence in adult human relationships as presented in the article: “Love. What Is It, Why Does It Matter, and How Does It Operate?”  by H. Reis and A. Aron. A brief summary of the ideas from this article is presented below.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF LOVE RESEARCH

Most popular contemporary ideas about love can be traced to the classical Greek philosophers. Prominent in this regard is Plato’s Symposium. It is a systematic and seminal analysis whose major ideas

have probably influenced contemporary work on love more than all subsequent philosophical work combined. However, four major intellectual developments of the 19th and 20th centuries provided key insights that helped shape the agenda for current research and theory of love.

The first of these was led by Charles Darwin, who proposed that reproductive success was the central process underlying the evolution of species. Evolutionary theorizing has led directly to such currently popular concepts as mate preference, sexual mating strategies, and attachment, as well as to the adoption of a comparative approach across species.

A second important figure was Sigmund Freud. He introduced many psychodynamic principles, such as the importance of early childhood experiences, the powerful impact of motives operating outside of awareness, the role of defenses in shaping the behavioral expression of motives, and the role of sexuality as a force in human behavior.

A third historically significant figure was Margaret Mead. Mead expanded awareness with vivid descriptions of cultural variations in the expression of love and sexuality. This led researchers to consider the influence of socialization and to recognize cultural variation in many aspects of love.

The emerging women’s movement during the 1970s also contributed to a cultural climate that made the study of what had been traditionally thought of as ‘‘women’s concerns’’ not only acceptable, but in fact necessary for the science of human behavior. At the same time, a group of social psychologists were beginning their work to show that adult love could be studied experimentally and in the laboratory.

WHAT’S PSYCHOLOGY GOT TO DO WITH LOVE

What is Love?  According to authors, Reis and Aron, love is defined as a desire to enter, maintain, or expand a close, connected, and ongoing relationship with another person. Considerable evidence supports a basic distinction, first offered in 1978, between passionate love (“a state of intense longing for union with another”) and other types of romantic love, labeled companionate love (“the affection we feel for those with whom our lives are deeply entwined”).

The evidence for this distinction comes from a variety of research methods, including psychometric techniques, examinations of the behavioral and relationship consequences of different forms of romantic love, and biological studies, which are discussed in this article.  Most work has focused on identifying and measuring passionate love and several aspects of romantic love, which include two components: intimacy and commitment.  Some scholars see companionate love as a combination of intimacy and commitment, whereas others see intimacy as the central component, with commitment as a peripheral factor (but important in its own right, such as for predicting relationship longevity).

In some studies, trust and caring were considred highly prototypical of love, whereas uncertainty and butterflies in the stomach were more peripheral.

Passionate and companionate love solves different adaptation problems. Passionate love may be said to solve the attraction problem—that is, for individuals to enter into a potentially long-term mating relationship, they must identify and select suitable candidates, attract the other’s interest, engage in relationship-building behavior, and then go about reorganizing existing activities and relationships so as to include the other. All of this is strenuous, time-consuming, and disruptive. Consequently, passionate love is associated with many changes in cognition, emotion, and behavior. For the most part, these changes are consistent with the idea of disrupting existing activities, routines, and social networks to orient the individual’s attention and goal-directed behavior toward a specific new partner.

Considerably less study has been devoted to understanding the evolutionary significance of the intimacy and commitment aspects of love. However, much evidence indicates that love in long-term relationships is associated with intimacy, trust, caring, and attachment; all factors that contribute to the maintenance of relationships over time.  More generally, the term companionate love may be characterized by communal relationship; a relationship built on mutual expectations that oneself and a partner will be responsive to each other’s needs.

It was speculated that companionate love, or at least the various processes associated with it, is responsible for the noted association among social relatedness, health, and well-being. In a recent series of papers, it was claimed that marriage is linked to health benefits. Having noted the positive functions of love, it is also important to consider the dark side. That is, problems in love and love relationships are a significant source of suicides, homicides, and both major and minor emotional disorders, such as anxiety and depression. Love matters not only because it can make our lives better, but also because it is a major source of misery and pain that can make life worse.

It is also believed that research will address how culture shapes the experience and expression of love. Although both passionate and companionate love appear to be universal, it is apparent that their manifestations may be moderated by culture-specific norms and rules.

Passionate love and companionate love has profoundly different implications for marriage around the world, considered essential in some cultures but contraindicated or rendered largely irrelevant in others. For example, among U.S. college students in the 1960s, only 24% of women and 65% of men considered love to be the basis of marriage, but in the 1980s this view was endorsed by more than 80% of both women and men.

Finally, the authors believe that the future will see a better understanding of what may be the quintessential question about love: How this very individualistic feeling is shaped by experiences in interaction with particular others.

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10 Psychology Studies Every Lover Should Know

Psychology of love and relationships: The brain map of love, the role of kissing, how couples come to look similar, what kills a relationship and more…

“Love does not consist in gazing at each other, but in looking outward together in the same direction.” ~ Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

The psychology of love and relationships has been examined by poets, philosophers, writers and many other artists over the years.

From the initial moment of attraction to growing old together, here are 10 psychology studies that all lovers should know.

1 . Falling in love takes one-fifth of a second

It takes a fifth-of-a-second for the euphoria-inducing chemicals to start acting on the brain when you are looking at that special someone.

Brain imaging studies of love suggest that 12 different areas of the brain are involved.

When looking or thinking about a loved one, these areas release a cocktail of neurotransmitters across the brain, including oxytocin, dopamine, vasopressin and adrenaline.

The brain gets a similar ‘hit’ from love as it does from a small dose of cocaine.

2 . Psychology of love: brain map

The first study to look at the neural difference between love and sexual desire finds remarkable overlaps and distinct differences.

The results showed that some strikingly similar brain networks were activated by love and sexual desire.

The regions activated were those involved in emotion, motivation and higher level thoughts.

This psychology of love suggests that sexual desire is more than just a basic emotion, but involves goal-directed motivation and the recruitment of more advanced thoughts.

Love is built on top of these circuits, with one key area of difference being in the striatum. This area of the brain is typically associated with the balance between higher- and lower-level functions.

3 . Psychology of love: kissing helps us choose

Two studies of kissing have found that apart from being sexy, kissing also helps people choose partners–and keep them.

In a survey, women in particular rated kissing as important, but more promiscuous members of both sexes rated kissing as a very important way of testing out a new mate.

But kissing isn’t just important at the start of a relationship; it also has a role in maintaining a relationship.

The researchers found a correlation between the amount of kissing that long-term partners did and the quality of their relationship.

This link wasn’t seen between more sex and improved relationship satisfaction.

4 . Couples look more similar after 25 years together

People who live with each other for 25 years may develop similar facial features.

One study  on the psychology of love has found that over 25 years of marriage the facial features of couples became more similar, as judged by independent observers.

This may be because of similarities in diet, environment, personality or even a result of empathising with your partner over the years.

5 . Psychology of love: long distance relationships

Contrary to the received wisdom, long distance relationships can work, according to research on the psychology of love.

Two factors that help keep long distance relationships alive are that these couples:

• Tell each other more intimate information.
• Have a more idealised view of their partner.

As a result, those in long distance relationships often have similar levels of relationship satisfaction and stability as those who are geographically close to each other.

6 . Four things that kill a relationship stone dead

For over 40 years the psychologist Professor John Gottman has been analysing the psychology of love.

He’s followed couples across decades in many psychological studies to see what kinds of behaviours predict whether they would stay together.

There are four things that kills relationships stone dead : repeated criticism, lots of expressions of contempt like sarcasm, being defensive and stonewalling, which is when communication almost completely shuts down.

7 . Modern marriages demand self-fulfilment

The face of marriage has changed significantly over the years, according to research .

It used to be more about providing safety and solidity, now people want psychological fulfilment from their marriages.

More than ever people expect marriage to be more of a journey towards self-fulfilment and self-actualisation.

Unfortunately in the face of these demands, couples are not investing sufficient time and effort to achieve this growth.

The study’s author, Eli Finkel explained:

“In general, if you want your marriage to help you achieve self-expression and personal growth, it’s crucial to invest sufficient time and energy in the marriage. If you know that the time and energy aren’t available, then it makes sense to adjust your expectations accordingly to minimize disappointment.”

8 . A simple exercise to save a marriage

If your relationship needs a little TLC, then there may be no need to go into therapy, suggests research on the psychology of love.

Instead, watching a few movies together could do the trick.

A three-year study finds that divorce rates were more than halved by watching movies about relationships and discussing them afterwards.

The study’s lead author, Ronald Rogge, said:

“The results suggest that husbands and wives have a pretty good sense of what they might be doing right and wrong in their relationships. Thus, you might not need to teach them a whole lot of skills to cut the divorce rate. You might just need to get them to think about how they are currently behaving. And for five movies to give us a benefit over three years–that is awesome.”

9 . The post-divorce relationship

Even after divorce, relationships don’t necessarily end, especially if there are children.

A study of co-parenting post-divorce has found it can go one of five ways, the first three of which are considered relatively functional:

• Dissolved duos, where (usually) the father disappears.
• Perfect pals, where parents continue to be best friends.
• Cooperative colleagues, where couples move on but remain on a good footing with each other.
• Angry associates, where the fighting continues after the divorce.
• Fiery foes, where children become pawns in the fight and usually suffer as a result.

10 . Psychology of love: the little things

Finally, as we live in a highly commercialised world where we’re encouraged to think love can be bought and sold, it’s worth remembering that often it’s the small things that can make a difference.

A survey  on the psychology of love of over 4,000 UK adults found that simple acts of kindness are often appreciated the most.

Bringing your partner a cup of tea in bed, putting the bins out or telling them they look good naked may all do a lot more than a box of chocolates or bunch of flowers (although these won’t hurt!).

Psychology of love

As the German poet and novelist Rainer Maria Rilke said:

“Once the realization is accepted that even between the closest human beings infinite distances continue, a wonderful living side by side can grow, if they succeed in loving the distance between them which makes it possible for each to see the other whole against the sky.”

Author: Jeremy Dean

Psychologist, Jeremy Dean, PhD is the founder and author of PsyBlog. He holds a doctorate in psychology from University College London and two other advanced degrees in psychology. He has been writing about scientific research on PsyBlog since 2004. He is also the author of the book "Making Habits, Breaking Habits" (Da Capo, 2013) and several ebooks. View all posts by Jeremy Dean

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Articles on Romantic relationships

Displaying 1 - 20 of 33 articles.

Is attachment theory actually important for romantic relationships?

Marissa Nivison , University of Calgary and Sheri Madigan , University of Calgary

What’s a polycule? An expert on polyamory explains

Riki Thompson , University of Washington

How asexuals navigate romantic relationships

Alexandra Brozowski , Michigan State University

How ‘Euphoria’ challenges viewers’ expectations of what a television show should be

Anne-Sophie Gravel , Université Laval

Partnering up can help you grow as an individual – here’s the psychology of a romantic relationship that expands the self

Gary W. Lewandowski Jr. , Monmouth University

Thinking objectively about romantic conflicts could lead to fewer future disagreements

Lindsey Rodriguez , University of South Florida

Curious Kids: why do people like to kiss? Do other animals kiss?

Rob Brooks , UNSW Sydney

Should I stay or should I go? Here are the relationship factors people ponder when deciding whether to break up

7 research-based resolutions that will help strengthen your relationship in the year ahead

Young Nigerians, relationships and risky sexual behaviour: survey findings

Emmanuel Adebayo , University of Ibadan

Isolating together is challenging – and relationship stresses can affect biological functioning

Hannah L. Schacter , Wayne State University

Stuck at home with your partner? Look to retirees for how to make it work

Anne Fishel , Harvard University

A 4-step maintenance plan to help keep your relationship going strong

Why people post ‘couple photos’ as their social media profile pictures

Amanda L. Forest , University of Pittsburgh and Kori Krueger , University of Pittsburgh

How do you know when it’s time to break up? Here’s the research

Veronica Lamarche , University of Essex

More romantic partners means more support, say polyamorous couples

Elizabeth Darling , McMaster University ; Erika Arseneau , McMaster University , and Samantha Landry , McMaster University

What is ‘attachment’ and how does it affect our relationships?

Gery Karantzas , Deakin University

Gaslighting: from partners to politicians – how to avoid becoming a victim

Stephan Lewandowsky , University of Bristol

Wish you were in an open relationship? So do many Canadians

Nichole Fairbrother , University of British Columbia

Think you love your Valentine? What’s beneath the surface may be more complicated

Vivian Zayas , Cornell University and Yuichi Shoda , University of Washington

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IResearchNet

Interpersonal Relationships Research Topics

In interpersonal relationships, two participants are interdependent, where the behavior of each affects the outcomes of the other. Additionally, the individuals interact with each other in a series of interactions that are interrelated and affect each other. Individuals form many different kinds of relationships with other people, some of which are intimate and close (e.g., parent–child, spouse–spouse, friendships) and others which are not intimate and close (e.g., neighbor, teacher–student). Most of the research on interpersonal relationships has focused on those relationships that are close, intimate, and have high interdependence. In an influential book, Kelley and colleagues (1983) define a close relationship as one that is strong, frequent, and with diverse interdependence that lasts over a considerable period of time. In sociology, although the classic distinction between primary and secondary relationships has been expanded in the public realm (fleeting, routinized, quasi-primary, and intimate secondary relationships), these close relationships (as described above) also can be categorized as primary groups, which provide support and nurture and socialize individuals to the norms of society. Read more about  Interpersonal Relationships .

Interpersonal Relationships Research Topics:

• Close Relationships
• Communal Relationships
• Companionate Love
• Complementarity
• Dependence Regulation
• Empathic Accuracy
• Exchange Relationships
• Forgiveness
• Interpersonal Cognition
• Intimate Partner Violence
• Marital Satisfaction
• Matching Hypothesis
• Need to Belong
• Nonverbal Cues
• Propinquity
• Romantic Love
• Romantic Secrecy
• Sexual Desire
• Similarity-Attraction Effect
• Social Exclusion
• Social Support
• Social Value Orientation
• Transactive Memory
• Unrequited Love

Future Directions in Interpersonal Relationships Research

Return to Social Psychology Topics list.

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125 Relationships Research Topics & Essay Examples

📝 relationships research papers examples, 👍 good relationships essay topics to write about, 🏆 best relationships essay titles, 🎓 simple research topics about relationships, ❓ relationships research questions.

• Relationships Based on Power: Parents and Children Psychology essay sample: Parents play the most important role in the healthy development and growth of their children. Parents’ impact on their children can be both positive and negative.
• Counselor Roles and Relationships Psychology essay sample: A counselor utilizes empathy to create connections with their clients to help them resolve a crisis, while also collaborating with other workers to create effective techniques.
• Optimism Impact on Social Relationships Psychology essay sample: This paper provides a brief overview of an article that explores the impact of optimism on social relationships.
• Adult Attachment and Close Relationships Psychology essay sample: The results of Attachment Styles and Close Relationships test demonstrates that my attachment style is secure.
• Attachment Theory and Romantic Relationships Psychology essay sample: This paper will examine the main aspects of the attachment theory and the theories of adult behavior developed based on it.
• Low Self-Esteem and Unhealthy Relationships Link Psychology essay sample: This research seeks to study the hypothesis that people with low self-esteem are more likely to stay in unhealthy relationships.
• Advantages and Disadvantages of Multiple Relationships Psychology essay sample: Multiple relationships are potentially more damaging than positive. Despite personal responsibility for such interactions, general rules cannot be violated.
• Attachment Types in Close Relationships Psychology essay sample: The current article outlines two main approaches to the issue of exchange and communal norms within intimate connections.
• Counselor-Client Relationships and Influences Psychology essay sample: This essay aimed to analyze issues affecting counselor-client relationships. Family and values are the most cited factors.
• Reality and Family Therapy to Improve Relationships Psychology essay sample: The primary goal of the therapy is to improve the patient’s relationship with his father and help him become more conscious in terms of his life choices.
• Life Course Theory and Intergenerational Relationships in Families Psychology essay sample: The life course theory assists in identifying the factors affecting the development of individuals, families, and relationships within families.
• Relationships Between Personality and Cognitive Ability Psychology essay sample: The relationship between cognitive ability and personality has been explained based on the Big Five and investment theory of intelligence.
• Interpersonal Relationships: Dealing with Grief Psychology essay sample: Interpersonal relationships need maximum determination to nurture and sustain, and they are regarded as a connection between people.
• John Gottman on Family Relationships’ Stability Psychology essay sample: John Gottman has devoted most of his work to studying family relationships' stability. He describes the essential criteria of an apocalypse in relationships.
• Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy to Decrease the Relapse in Chronically Depressed Persons Psychology essay sample: The researchers analyze the relationships between interpersonal processes, chronic depression, and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT).
• Changes in Relationships Through Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy Psychology essay sample: The paper aims to collect data on the positive or negative outcomes of therapy to gain a new perspective on the effect of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy.
• Freud's Child Development Theory Psychology essay sample: The theory of child development developed by Zigmund Freud is based on the belief that the child is always in conflict with society.
• The Best Solution to Predict Depression Because of Bullying Psychology essay sample: This paper examines interventions to prove that the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program is the most effective solution for predicting depression provoked by bullying.
• Maya Angelou's Personality Assessment Psychology essay sample: This paper includes psychoanalytic aspect, neo-analytic and ego aspects, biological aspects, behaviorist and learning aspects, and trait aspects of personality.
• Abusive or Violent Relationships Psychology essay sample: There are different reasons younger people stay in abusive or violent relationships. Young adults do not know what to expect or how to react to abuse.
• “Encounters with Animal Minds” Article by Smuts Psychology essay sample: Barbara Smuts, a professor of psychology, introduced her experience of communicating with animals in her article the title “Encounters with Animal Minds,” published in 2001.
• Depression Among Students at Elon University Psychology essay sample: This paper entails an analysis of the problem of depression in colleges, specifically, at Elon University, and it includes its causes and suggested remedies.
• How One Can Apply Psychology to One’s Future Life Psychology essay sample: Even in the field of psychology, differing viewpoints are common. There is a method to communicate disagreements without getting into a fight.
• Ethnography of Self: Call to Action Psychology essay sample: Communication problems usually happen on the interpersonal level when people fail to understand each other or say something offensive, thus spoiling the relationships.
• Psychological Subheadings and Their Relationship Psychology essay sample: Psychology has four main subdisciplines social, cognitive, biological, and developmental hence; they attempt to answer different psychological questions.
• Structural Family Theory Applied to Wilson’s “Fences” Psychology essay sample: August Wilson’s “Fences” represents peculiar family dynamics worth discussing and viewing through the Wheel Theory of Love lens.
• Trauma and Its Effect on Children Psychology essay sample: The paper examines the notion of trauma and its effect on children. Moreover, it looks into the consequences, causes, reactivation of trauma, and prospective treatment.
• The Biological Approach to Understanding Human Emotion Psychology essay sample: This paper aims to critically analyze the biological approach to understanding peoples' feelings and conclude on the interaction between biology and individuals' emotions.
• Prosocial Behavior and Hostilities Against Women Psychology essay sample: The most critical factors that promote relationship satisfaction include attachment style, communication skills, and problem-solving skills.
• The Psychology of Being Born Good or Bad Psychology essay sample: Ideally, children are born with the virtue of goodness; nevertheless, factors such as psychological and upbringing variations can transform them to be morally upright.
• The Application of Family Therapy's Psychological Frameworks Psychology essay sample: This paper aims to critically assess the theoretical concepts of helping relationships by looking at how family therapy's psychological frameworks are applied to group therapy.
• Perceived Academic Stress and Continuing and Returning Students Psychology essay sample: This paper investigates the relationship between perceived academic stress, continuing, and returning students variables. It adopted a descriptive study design.
• The Postmodern Approach to Family Therapy Psychology essay sample: The article analyzes the clinical applicability of the integration of the postmodern approach with Ingram's model of theological reflection in family psychotherapy.
• Analyzing the Role of Developmental Factors in Two Families Psychology essay sample: This paper analyzes the developmental factors for the personal and case scenario families, compares these factors, and develops strategies to solve the issues.
• Family Conflicts: Universal Counseling and Support Program Psychology essay sample: The focus of the research is to explore the feasibility and necessity of implementing universal counseling and support programs freely and easily accessible by all families.
• Children's Development Affected by Environment Psychology essay sample: This paper discusses the effects of the environment on child development by categorizing the environment into social, physical, biological, familial, and emotional environments.
• Attachment Theory and Developmental Psychology in Early Childhood Psychology essay sample: This paper explores attachment theory and its role in developmental psychology, specifically focusing on early childhood.
• Adolescence Egocentrism: Examples Psychology essay sample: This paper explores the concept of egocentrism during adolescence and its impact on the interpersonal relationships and development of teenagers.
• Psychoanalytic Family Therapy and Its Importance Psychology essay sample: The inability of the family to fulfill social functions requires the intervention and implementation of psychoanalytic therapy to strengthen the unit of society.
• Psychoanalytic Family Therapy in Clinical Practice Psychology essay sample: There is a prospect of development and approbation in the clinical practice of family psychoanalytic psychotherapy based on the psychoanalytic method.
• Behavioral and Cognitive-Behavioral Family Therapy Models Psychology essay sample: This presentation will also show how Christianity and CBFT can collaborate to provide clients with the most outstanding possible service.
• Erickson’s Psychosocial Theory of Development Psychology essay sample: The psychosocial development theory by Erickson is an expansion of a model by Sigmund Freud’s study on ego, super-ego, and identity.
• Unrequited Love Theories in Practice Psychology essay sample: The biological and social aspects of unrequited love are covered in Bamford's article, while the severity of the experience is covered by Bode & Kuula.
• Risk Factors of Suicidality Among Teenagers Psychology essay sample: A study on risk factors, including physical, social, psychological, and substance abuse for teenage suicidality, is crucial for understanding suicide among adolescents.
• Freud's Psychoanalytic Theory of Personality Development Psychology essay sample: Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic theory of personality development has generated much research in child and family development.
• Incarcerated Parents Raising Children Psychology essay sample: Incarceration of parents or one of them is one of the severe tests for children who are forced to take on a new role.
• Parental Divorce's Impact on Children Psychology essay sample: Separation of parents negatively affects the psychological state of children, who, especially at an early age, are very susceptible to divorce in the family.
• Bronfenbrenner Ecological Theory on Interpersonal Violence in Early Childhood Psychology essay sample: The modern world is cruel, and we frequently witness instances where a person intentionally hurts another person. Society is now concerned about other issues, like child abuse.
• Personality Disorder: The Development of Antisocial Behavior Psychology essay sample: Antisocial behavior refers to a set of actions that result from a person's lack of the ability to respect other people's rights. Examples of these actions include setting fires.
• Erikson’s and Freud’s Developmental Theories Psychology essay sample: This paper explores the scholarly research that supports developmental theories and is based on Erikson’s and Freud’s ideas pertaining to child and family development.
• The Issue of Psychological Abuse and Violence Psychology essay sample: The paper states that psychological moral violence is a way of non-physical pressure on the human psyche. The result is the rejection of one's attitudes.
• Children's Social Development After Divorce Psychology essay sample: Since divorce is common in the world, it is essential to understand how it affects kids and find strategies to shield them from any potential harm.
• Being in a Relationship vs. Being Single Psychology essay sample: People tend to look for romantic partners for various reasons, but, at the same time, in the modern world, the choice to be single is increasingly common.
• Key Communication Skills for Building Stronger Relationships
• The Impact of Quality Time on Relationship Health
• Exploring the Dynamics of Power and Equality in Romantic Relationships
• How to Build a Strong Parent-Teacher Relationship Parents need to understand the importance of meeting with an educator to get the guidance they need to prepare their child for the classroom.
• Navigating Long-Distance Relationships: Tips for Maintaining Connection
• Understanding of Love Languages
• The Power of Forgiveness in Healing Relationships
• Building Trust in Relationships: 7 Essential Strategies for Success
• Establishing Professional Relationships in Criminology Law essay sample: Brown’s “Truth and Method in Southern Criminology” is an article that elaborates on the topic of ethics and methodology in the area of criminal justice.
• 8 Signs of a Healthy Relationship
• Exploring the Dynamics of Parent-Child Relationships
• The Influence of Past Experiences on Present Relationships
• Strengthening the Employment Relationship The focus of this report is to develop a human resource management proposal that focuses on strengthening the employment relationship.
• Embracing Imperfection in Relationships: The Beauty of Flaws and Vulnerability
• The Role of Empathy in Building Strong and Lasting Relationships
• Aging and Its Effects on Social Relationships Social relationships are beneficial to the elderly. This research analyzes the perspectives that are used to define aging and its effects on social relationships.
• Balancing Independence and Togetherness in Relationships
• Coping with Loss in Relationships: Navigating Grief
• Communication and Relationship Building Importance for Managers and Leaders If a manager lacks effective communication skills and good relationships with the employees, it leads to many problems with communication.
• The Impact of Technology on Relationships in the Digital Age
• Ways to Keep the Spark Alive in a Long-Term Relationship
• The Art of Effective Communication in Relationships
• The Impact of Social Media on Modern Relationships
• Customer Relationship Management Digital business technologies rapidly develop and make it crucial for companies to integrate novelties for maintaining competitiveness.
• Building Trust and Overcoming Betrayal in a Relationship
• Overcoming Cultural Differences in Intercultural Relationships
• Signs of a Healthy Friendship
• Exploring the Different Love Languages and Their Impact on Relationships
• The Future of Work Relationships in a Post-Pandemic World
• Family Relationships in Walker’s Everyday Use It is essential to examine the relationships between the mother and her daughters in Walker’s Everyday Use, as well as how this ultimately led to her final decision on the quilts.
• Understanding Different Communication Styles in Friendships
• The Impact of Positive Work Relationships on Employee Productivity
• Ways to Strengthen Sibling Bonds and Create Lifelong Connections
• Impact of Technology on Human Relationship Human relationships have grown due to communication technology, but people should be regulated from their cell phones for great connections to be achieved.
• The Importance of Shared Values in a Relationship
• The Impact of Social Media on Friendships
• LGBTQ+ Teen Relationships
• Single Mothers’ Experiences of Relationships with Their Adolescent Sons A generic qualitative design was applied in the study to investigate the experiences of single African American mothers and their relationships with their adolescent sons.
• The Influence of Birth Order on Family Dynamics
• Navigating Cultural Differences in a Romantic Relationship
• Researching of Nurse’s Personal Ethics Many lives depend on nurses, and therefore the requirements for their ethical commitment, values, and beliefs are incredibly firm.
• Cultivating Diversity and Inclusion in Work Relationships
• The Role of Empathy in Building Strong Friendships
• Relationship Between Teachers and Students in the Universities A good relationship between the student and the teachers is essential in ensuring a positive run in academic and social affairs on campus.
• The Power of Forgiveness in Friendships
• Understanding and Overcoming Parent-Teen Communication Barriers
• Recognizing and Addressing Toxic Work Relationships
• Balancing Friendships and Romantic Relationships
• Employer and Employee Relationships – Labor Law This discussion has dealt with employer-employee relationships with particular focus on the United Arab Emirates and other countries in the Middle East.
• The Evolution of Friendships Throughout Different Life Stages
• The Influence of Work Relationships on Job Satisfaction and Retention
• How to Apply Understanding Love Languages in Relationships?
• How to Successfully Navigate a Long-Distance Relationship?
• How to Stay Connected in Long-Distance Friendships?
• How to Make New Friends as an Adult?
• The Science of Attraction: What Draws People Together?
• How to Keep the Spark Alive in a Long-Term Relationship?
• How to Balance Independence and Togetherness in a Relationship?
• Are You Enabling Destructive Behavior in Your Relationship?
• How to Better Understand Your Partner’s Needs?
• How to Foster Effective Communication in the Workplace?
• How to Support a Friend Going Through Tough Times?
• How to Set Boundaries in a Relationship and Why It’s Essential?
• How to Break Free From Toxic Relationship?
• How to Support Family Members Through Life Transitions?
• How to Foster Healthy Independence in Children While Maintaining a Strong Family Unit?
• What the Peer Support and Teenage Relationships?
• How to Navigate Sibling Rivalry as Adults?
• What the Importance of Positive Friendships?
• What the Impact of Birth Order on Sibling Relationships?
• How to Improve Sibling Communication Styles?

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Love and Relationships as a Research Topic

• Database Resources
• Website Resources

Many of our students come to us for scholarly articles about love and relationships.   Here is a list of resources that can help.

Books on the Psychology of Romance & Marriage

These are available in the rvcc library collection:.

These are individual journals within their respective databases.  Make sure you are logged in with your G# before clicking on a link.

American Association for Family and Marriage Therapy

New Jersey Association for Marriage and Family Therapy

New Jersey Couples Clinic at Rutgers

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• Last Updated: Oct 4, 2022 5:41 PM
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527 Relationship Essay Topics

🏆 best essay topics on relationship, 👍 good relationship research topics & essay examples, 🌶️ hot relationship ideas to write about, 🎓 most interesting relationship research titles, 📌 easy relationship essay topics, 💡 simple relationship essay ideas, ✍️ relationship essay topics for college, ❓ relationship research questions.

• Social Media: The Negative Impact on Relationships
• The Relationship Between the Environment and Humans
• Literature: Relationships With Society
• Confucius: The Five Great Relationships
• The Relationship Between Theory and Research
• Hamlet and Gertrude Relationship Analysis – Research Paper
• Shakespearean Hamlet’s and Ophelia’s Relationship
• The Relationship Between the Environment and Development Environmental issues are some of the most popular topics for global discussion among the policymakers. Different countries face different environmental problems.
• The Relationship between Religion and Politics The paper will look at how various civilizations have regarded religion and the extent to which religion has been allowed to influence the direction of politics.
• How Cell Phones Affect Family Relationships: Essay Sample This essay will give recommendations on how to handle technological devices to improve the social structures in a family.
• Relationship Problems and Disagreements All relationships have problems and disagreements. Lack of communication can be the start of a couple’s problems or the other way round.
• Relationships in “The Merchant of Venice” by Shakespeare “The Merchant of Venice” is a play written by William Shakespeare during the 16th century. The characters in the play demonstrate virtues of friendship, love, and hate.
• Law and Medicine: Relationship Analysis Medicine like most other professionals is governed by laws that are meant to protect patients’ rights and prevent fraudulent practice.
• “Night” by Elie Wiesel: Eliezer’s and His Father Relationship Eliezer the main character in Night encounters change on several occasions. This essay describes how the relationship between Eliezer and his father changes throughout the novel.
• Relationship Between Entrepreneurship and Innovation Entrepreneurship and innovation are complementary of each other. Having an updated entrepreneurial perspective in business is critical for reaching the aim of innovation.
• Social Media: Impact on Interpersonal Communication and Relationships Social media has surpassed email as the primary method of communication with individuals from all around the globe. It has proved beneficial to some and harmful to others.
• Social Media and Interpersonal Relationships Social media has undeniably impacted the nature of interpersonal relationships, and the result is rather ambiguous, although more negative changes can be identified.
• Boeing Company’s Customer Relationships Management The focus of the paper is to give the definition of the notion of “being customer-led” and to analyze different customer-led programs on the example of Boeing Company.
• Importance of Relationships and Family in Frankenstein Frankenstein’s novel talks about different thematic outlooks relying on what the reader identifies as the thematic impact of their modern culture.
• How Happy Relationships Affect a Person: Cause and Effect The paper states that happy relationships are affective. They impact a person’s physical and emotional health and can change an individual’s attitude in life.
• The Relationship Between Identity and Language Native language is often taken for granted as something that people use intuitively but it has a critical role in building one’s identity.
• Counseling and the Characteristics of Helping Relationships Counseling is a multifaceted process that involves the creation of friendship, active listening and elevation of an individual to make a wise decision concord to current challenges.
• Arm Span vs. Height: The Relationship Analysis This study will demonstrate whether the men’s spread arms are equal to their height using the dimensions provided in the Vitruvian man illustration.
• Relationship Between Concepts, Constructs, and Variables To develop the conceptual framework, it is crucial to define the concepts, constructs, and variables and understand their application in healthcare research.
• Relationship Between Poverty and Crime The paper makes the case and discusses inequality rather than poverty being the prime reason for people committing crimes.
• Relationship Between Korean Culture and Language This paper considers the English language peculiarities among Korean migrants to demonstrate the impact of national culture on forming the Korean language by using their contracts.
• The Glass Menagerie: Analysis of Relationships This essay will analyze the complicated relationship between the antagonists of the Glass Menagerie play Amanda–the mother and Laura—the daughter.
• Aristotle’s View on the Relationship Between Soul and Body Aristotle’s work called “De Anima” represents a study of the question of the soul and is phenomenal for the time of the thinker.
• Relationship Between Morality and Happiness The role of morality in relation to happiness is essential. It defines the core principles and values of a person.
• Relationship between Gods and Humans in The Odyssey The relationships between Gods and Humans in The Odyssey are layered and vital for the story. Find out how they affect the plot and Odysseus’s journey.
• My Relationships With the English Language and English Skills One day, I realized that the development of literacy skills did not mean merely the ability to string several words together in a coherent sentence.
• Intercultural Relationships and Communication An intercultural relationship is vital because it can help to learn new skills and gain diversified cultural knowledge.
• Music and Mathematics Relationship This paper seeks to show the usage of mathematics in music and avail information on the effects of listening to music on mathematics.
• Cathay Pacific Airlines’ Customer Relationship Management This paper investigates the impact of customer relationship management in the airline industry and its contribution to the success of Cathay Pacific Airlines.
• Business Relationship With Its Stakeholders This paper briefly looks at theories that explain a business relationship with its stakeholders. It then discusses stakeholders in the banking industry.
• Single African American Mothers’ Relationships With Sons The research topic for this study dealt with the experiences of single African American mothers’ relationships with their sons.
• Joyce Travelbee’s Human to Human Relationship Model Joyce Travelbee’s human-to-human relationship model argues that every patient is a unique human being who deserves to be provided with hope, motivation, and meaning while experiencing the illness.
• Business and Human Resource Strategies Relationship This paper discusses the reasons why it is necessary to have a close relationship between business strategy and an organization’s human resource strategy.
• Marriage and Family Relationships’ Role in Society In this paper, attention will be paid to such factors as social class, age, and other determinants of marriage in order to comprehend the worth of a family in society.
• Virtual and In-Person Relationships: Comparative Analysis The lower rate of marriages compared to romantic partnerships among online daters may be due to the lack of exclusivity, commitment, and trust.
• The Relationships Between Church and States in Europe This paper has explored the development of relationships between church and state in Europe in the period from 800 to 1122.
• Parent-Child Relationship and Its Effect on Adolescents The importance of parent-child relationships stems from an incredible level of interdependence that many families display when it comes to addressing family needs.
• Pluralism Approach to Employment Relationship The paper discusses whether pluralism is the most viable approach to the modern employment relationship by comparing it with other structures and exploring neo-pluralism.
• The Relationship Between Land and People A case on study was the December 26th, 2004 tsunami that killed over 230,000 people in 14 different countries.
• Odysseus and Athena Relationship in Homer’s The Odyssey Odyssey is one of the major poems written by Homer. It has been translated to a number of modern languages and originally it was expected to be sung, rather than read.
• The Processes of Building Connection and Relationships A situation in which someone reveals his or her feelings is always saturated with emotions and requires understanding and empathic accuracy.
• Building Meaningful Relationships The relationships that people create with their contacts are critical in mobilizing resources to promote change in the community.
• The Relationship Between Science and Philosophy The article discusses science and philosophy are the same things, but science is a modified version of philosophy.
• The Relationship Between Education and Recidivism Inmates who enrolled to earn a diploma in General Educational Development did not engage in crimes again as compared to those who did not enroll for such programs.
• Attachment Theory and Romantic Relationships Attachment is a crucial personal characteristic that significantly influences an individual’s social life and romantic relations.
• Gadgets’ Impact on Parent-Child Relationships This paper considers studies that analyze gadgets’ impact on relations between parents and children and factors that affect the time children spend using their devices.
• Analysis of the Relationship between Strategy and Implementation of Change The development of internet technology has resulted into global interconnection amongst various organizations.
• The Work and Identity Formation Relationship Work is one of the vast parts of human lives because contributes to the moral development of people and is closely connected with the process of personality forming.
• Wal-Mart: Managing Relationships with Stakeholders From an ethical and legal point of view, Wal-Mart needed to change some policies and continue to improve on some of its most basic strategies.
• Computer Communication and Its Influence on People’s Relationships The essay states that computer communication has excellent development opportunities currently, still it has some negative effects.
• Science and Religion: Historical Relationship This paper will discuss the historical relationship between science and religion including the areas of contention and agreement between the two.
• Father-Son Relationships in Homer’s “The Odyssey” By focusing on the father-son relationship, Homer reveals what was important to the ancient Greeks and what should still be important to us today.
• Marriage and Romantic Relationships: US vs. Trinidad & Tobago This paper aims to discuss the courtship and marriage customs in the United States and compare them with those from Trinidad and Tobago.
• Behaving in a Loving Relationship This topic is essential because divorce rates increase every year, and most people are not aware of the rules that may help maintain love, trust, and care.
• Employee Burnout and Vacation Length Relationship There is a problem with the workplace burnout rates in the organization. It needs to be addressed in a manner as efficient and expeditious as possible.
• Ghosting in Communication and Relationships Ghosting is the act of abruptly ending all communication with someone, especially with another person well-known to someone.
• “Sonny’s Blues”: Relationships Between the Brothers One of the main themes in the short story “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin is family support, essential for uniting the characters and allowing them to solve their problems.
• Relationship with Father in the Book Night by Elie Wiesel In the book Night by Elie Wiesel, Eliezer experiences starvation, mental and physical abuse; the experience resulted to a change in relationship with his father.
• The Impacts of Divorce on Family Relationships The purpose of this study is to analyze the effect of divorce and separation on family relationships. The researcher will apply qualitative research approach to analyze data.
• Cheating or Infidelity in Relationships Infidelity in romantic relationships, both at the stage of dating and marrying, usually leads to the partnership’s destruction.
• How to End a Relationship? In the instance when both parties are not comfortable with the relationship and they are ready to come out and share their feelings, ending a relationship is rather easy.
• Enculturation and Family Relationships This paper will be devoted to the experience of enculturation affected by parents and their relationships and what impact it had on the family relationships.
• Money Issues in Romantic and Marital Relationships Money often causes issues in relationships because of changing roles in the household, increasing expenses, financial infidelity, and lack of financial goals.
• Responsible Relationships and Abstinence Developing responsible relationships and remaining abstinent is crucial for adolescents and young adults, especially for their mental well-being.
• Boyle’s Law: Pressure-Volume Relationship in Gases The purpose of this paper is to use an established mathematical relationship to determine pressure or volume gas when one variable changes at a constant temperature.
• The Relationship Between Youth, Lifestyle and Consumption The idea of youth in the modern world has not been explicitly attached to a certain age group, and became the focus of the global consumer culture as a whole.
• Relationship Between Urbanization, Globalization, and People The relationship between urbanization, globalization, and people is one of the most interesting and provocative topics in many discussions.
• Worker-Employer Relationship According to Bible Job is an influential part of a person’s life, and employees and employers must build good relationships. The Bible refers to them as interactions between a slave and a master.
• Hamlet’s Relationship With Gertrude Hamlet’s conflict with Gertrude, his mother, reflects the difference in views between them and the young prince’s desire for imaginary ideals amid royal intrigue.
• Symbiotic Relationship Between Cleaner Gobies and Fish Symbiotic relationship occurs only when different species are involved in intra-specific relationships (relationships within the same species).
• Explaining the Impact of Birth Order on Siblings’ Relationships Relationships between children can vary and be analyzed on the basis of a number of factors, primarily the position of the siblings, more popularly termed as ‘birth-order’.
• Family Relationships and Dominant Culture Personal preferences, values, and attitudes are largely conditioned by the social and cultural environment in which people live.
• Family Relationship in “Night” by Elie Wiesel In the book Night by Elie Wiesel, the relationship between Eliezar and his father appears to be complex. In this essay, the author analyzes how this relationship changes throughout the novel.
• Rita F. Pierson and The TED Talk on Education and the Teacher’s Relationship With the Children Rita F. Pierson: the TED talk on education and the teacher’s relationship with the children they teach and discuss its traits as well as those of the speaker.
• Father-Son Relationship in Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” Play The paper states that Hamlet’s struggle emanates from the death of his father. Although he becomes a villain at some point, he remained steadfast.
• Education and Income Inequality Relationship Income inequality is a great problem of every society since it widens the chasm between the richest and the most deprived people and negatively affects economic growth.
• Peplau’s Theory of Nurse-Patient Relationship Peplau theorized the main goal of care is to create an interpersonal, therapeutic relationship to allow nurses to assist their clients in identifying their felt problems.
• Hedda Gabler’s Relationships with the Men in Her Life The play “Hedda Gabler” reveals the lifestyle and thoughts of a desperate housewife who is limited by Victorian values.
• The Main Theses of Healthy Relationship A healthy relationship refers to a good relation with the people around you whereby there are no instances of quarrel or disagreements over given issues.
• Freedom in Life and Relationship There are numerous benefits accrued from freedom in a relationship. Setting a partner free in a relationship leads to one becoming responsible and committed to the relationship.
• Body-Mind Relationship in Psychobiology The very division into “the body” and “the mind” is artificial, but it is convenient due to our perception of the world and the huge qualitative difference between them.
• Romantic Relationship: Failures and Lessons Self-development is the final step before meeting the one who can make you happy and the final stride before developing successful relationships with this Mr. or Ms. Right.
• The Relationship Between the Range and Time of Flight of a Cannonball This work aims to establish the relationship between the range and time of flight of a cannonball as a function of its initial velocity of departure from the cannon.
• Relationship Between Strategy and Operations in an Organization The paper states that the relationship between strategy and operations creates a strong process for formulating decisions in running an organization.
• The Relationship Between Air Temperature and Relative Humidity The paper describes the connection between relative humidity and temperature as well as the variations in these two parameters at different times of the day.
• Nursing Theoretical Frameworks: Joyce Travelbee’s Human-To-Human Relationship Model In contemporary nursing science, there are numerous theoretical frameworks of various types, each describing a unique approach to caregiving.
• The Impact Paternal Absence on Females Relationships This study will examine the impact paternal absence has on the way females (who were abandoned by their fathers in their childhood or adolescence) develop their intimate relationships.
• The Impact of Divorce and Separation on Family Relationships Divorce and separation has become a tradition in the contemporary world. Spouses barely finish 10 years in marriage before they start having misunderstandings.
• Ethics: Dual Relationships Dual-role relationships are a very important topic in the social working area since they can affect both sides: the specialist and the client.
• Developing Relationships in the Workplace Stakeholders are individuals and groups that the firm impacts directly or indirectly. Businesses must identify and prioritize the needs and expectations via surveys and feedback.
• Football in Ghana and Its Relationship with the Rest of the World (Player Transfers) Football is one of the most popular sports not only in Ghana but in the region of Africa and the global society.
• The Theme of Relationships in “Hills Like White Elephants” and “Indian Camp” by Hemingway Ernest Hemingway’s stories “Hills Like White Elephants” and “Indian Camp” depict the struggles of the characters to highlight the issues in human relationships.
• The Relationship Between Human Sinfulness and the Doctrine of Salvation The theme of the salvation of the human soul is central throughout the Bible. This paper examines one aspect of the Doctrine of Salvation, concerning human sinfulness.
• Classifications: Cell-Phone Users, Relationship, Class Items and Drivers This paper examines different types of people in the following categories: cell-phone users, relationship, class items and drivers.
• Interpersonal Relationships in the Movie Crash The movie Crash (2004) raises multiple essential topics, and some of the described issues are still acute in society.
• Customer Relationship Marketing in Business Marketing The purpose of this article is to look at relationship marketing, the goals it pursues, and the methods by which these goals are achieved.
• The Kite Runner’ by Khaled Hosseini: Relationships That Change The Kite Runner is an interpretation of changes people experience before and after bombs destroyed their lives, political controversies, and human relationships.
• GE Energy and GE Healthcare: Strategic Customer Relationships This article seeks to discuss the benefits of building strategic customer relationships for GE Energy and GE healthcare and their customers.
• The Relationship of Leadership to the Politics of the Organization The advice given by Dr. Kennedy is practical to some extent. Many workers prefer to be led rather than be managed.
• Parasocial Relationships and Purchasing Habits The purpose of this study is to explore and analyze the connection between parasocial relationships, electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) intentions, and the followers’ intent to purchase.
• Globalization and Democratization Relationship This paper explores the existing relationship between democracy and globalization. It focuses on democratization, globalization and their imperativeness.
• Organizational Structure’s and Culture Relationship The paper considers the questions about creating and managing organizational culture, and organizational design and strategy in a changing global environment.
• Parent-Child Relationships in the Novels “Lolita” by Vladimir Nabokov and “Sula” by Toni Morrison The problem of parent-child relationships is one of the most examined and actual eternal questions. This question concerns the problems of love and hatred.
• The Relationship Between Task Duration and Direct Resource Cost During the implementation of the project, the speed of task duration is directly related to direct resource costs; that is, the more time is needed, the more resources are spent.
• Romantic Relationships Built With Dating Apps Modern technologies are actively developing and improving and helping people in all areas of their lives. The sphere of personal relationships and love is no exception.
• Extramarital Relationships and Their Causes It is crucial to consider the factors that influence the formation of extramarital affairs and find a way to eliminate the causes of such relationship issue emergence.
• Analysis TED Talk Outline: Broken Relationship Sometimes, relationships get broken for seemingly no reason; you just abruptly drift away from each other: even the closest of people can grow apart without a reason.
• The Mediating Effect of Job Happiness on the Relationship Between Job Satisfaction Employee happiness has attracted significant attention from scholars and practitioners because of employees who are committed.
• Date Rape and Victim-Offender Relationships Analysis The victim/offender relationship is one of the most significant factors, which help to determine offender’s behavior at different stages of committing a crime.
• Breaking Free From an Abusive Relationship The problem of an abusive relationship and a woman’s role in it is vividly depicted in the movie “Enough” with Jennifer Lopez and in the book “Black and Blue” by Anna Quindlen.
• Marketing: Good Relationship With Customers The paper aims to develop a good relationship in a company with the customer by employing different strategies.
• Relationship between Religion and Government The government and religion should not be related at all as an individual’s religious choices are personal. The paper shall look at the basis of this argument through examples.
• Marketing and Revenue Management Relationship Marketing and revenue are two correlated essential aspects of the business. Both revenue management and marketing are geared toward increasing business revenue.
• Building Family and Community Relationships Standard 2: Building Family and Community Relationships requires advocates on behalf of children to understand the current family and community situation of children.
• The Parent-Child Relationships Theories Duties that a child has to his or her parents are unique. When it comes to parents, an individual is expected to do things that he or she will not do for other people.
• Healthy Marriage and Family Relationships This essay examines the significance of scientifically based knowledge on marriages and family relationships with a view of establishing how good choices increase longevity.
• Why Doctor-Patient Relationships Matter Mutual understanding between doctor and patient influences the effectiveness of treatment just as much as correctly diagnosed and fully delivered medical care.
• Broken Relationships Aspects Discussion Nowadays, divorces are more acceptable in society, some people choose to be single parents, and some decide they do not need to be married to have a family.
• The Yoga Ethics in a Student-Teacher Relationship The yoga ethics in the student/teacher relationship arises from an idea of various boundaries ranging from an array of personal upbringing and regular life experiences.
• How to Maintain a Long-Term Relationship The answer to how to maintain a long-term relationship can be simplified into one word – balance. The sense lies in the lack of balance between high expectations and reality.
• Environment and Health Relationship This paper aims to explain the relationship between health and the environment through a succinct analysis and identification of five objectives of epidemiology.
• Money Issues in a Relationship In the contemporary world, both men and women contribute equally to the economy of the household. This has changed the household role of men from being the sole breadwinners.
• Doctor-Nurse Relationships
• Industry vs. Inferiority Relationships
• The Relationship With Colleagues
• The Relationship Between Drugs and Addiction to Crime
• The Relationship between Race and Sexuality
• McClelland’s Theory: Organizational Relationships
• Peer Relationships Impact on Adulthood Development
• Interpersonal Qualities for Good Relationships
• Domestic Violence in Same-Sex Relationships
• Descartes and the Mind-Body Relationship
• Mother-Daughter Relationship in “Flowers in the Attic” by Andrews, Virginia C.
• The Relationship Between My Laptop and Me
• Adult – Child Relationships in American Movies
• Father-Son Relationships in William Faulkner’s Novels
• Empirically Supported Relationships and Therapist Factors
• Education & Interpersonal Relationships in Family
• Impact of Relationships and Social Connection
• Integrity in Relationships and Leadership
• Behavior and Relationships in the Workplace
• The Contractor-Customer Relationship Factors
• Communication Theories in Workplace Relationships
• The Relationship of the Holy Spirit to the Father and the Son
• The Booking Firm’s Customer Relationship Management
• Trends in Relationships in the Board of Directors and the CEOs
• Polyandrous Relationships and Their Key Features
• Benefits of Good Parent-Child Relationships
• Social Media and Mental Health Relationship
• The Causes and Effects of Social Media on Relationships and Communication
• Identities within Relationships
• Technology and Dating: Social Media and Committed Relationships
• Cognitive Dissonance in Abusive Relationships
• Social Relationships and Work
• Birth Order and Siblings Relationships
• The Relationship Between Understaffing of Nurses and Patient Safety
• Muslim Faith and Healthcare Relationship
• African-American Mothers’ and Their Sons Relationship
• Standard 2: Building Family and Community Relationships
• Social Media Hindrance on Interpersonal Relationships
• Law and Morality Relationship: Kant vs. Fuller
• Primary Nursing Care vs. Relationship-Based Care
• Persuasion and Relationships in Negotiating and Disputes
• Communication Technology: Impact on Personal Relationships
• The Reverse Logistics and Sustainability Relationship
• Father & Son Relationship in Night by Elie Wiesel
• Competence in Relationships, Interaction, and Guidance
• Professional Relationships in Healthcare
• Public Health and Private Medicine Relationship
• Lobbying and Civil Disobedience Relationship
• Relationship Between Low Self-Esteem and Body Weight Among Adolescents
• Psychology of Relationships: Case Analysis
• Relativism and Its Relationship With Ethics
• Analyzing the Relationship Between Gender and Victimization
• Coach and Athlete Relationship
• Human Behavior and Social Environment Relationship
• Alzheimer’s Disease Through the Lens of a Relationship
• Collaborative Relationships within Child Protection Work
• Explaining Relationships: Types of Relationships
• Nurse-Family Relationship and Barriers to It
• Son-Father Relationship in Elie Wiesel’s “Night”
• Healthy Relationships in the Healthcare Workplace
• Human Becoming Theory in Patient-Nurse Relationships
• Role of Social Media in Managing Customer Relationships
• Singapore and Malaysia Economic Relationships
• Interpersonal Relationships and Health Outcomes
• Therapy and Culture in the Nurse-Patient Relationship
• Attraction, Love, Relationship Schemas and Stages
• Customer Relationship Management in E-Commerce
• The Role of Scientifically Based Knowledge on Marriage and Family Relationships
• Employee Relationships From a Biblical Perspective
• Doctor-Patient Relationships in Medical Anthropology
• Door-to-Door Sales and Personal Relationships
• Supply Chain Processes and Relationship Management
• The Relationship Between Internal and External Customers
• Exploring Patterns and Relationships in Mathematics
• Diversity Dimensions and Their Impact on Relationships
• Relationship Between Sports and Religion
• Understanding the Relationship Between Discount Rate and Risks
• Leadership Followership Relationship
• Relationship Development Application Paper
• Explaining Attachment Theory and Romantic Relationships
• Industrialization Impact on Men and Women Relationship
• Introduction to Sociology: Building Proper Relationships
• Culture and Its Relationship to Fundamentalism of Modern Iran
• The Experimental Approach: The Causal Relationship Between Independent Variables and Dependent Variables
• Ocean Spray Cranberries Inc.’s Supply Chain Relationships
• Interpersonal Relationship: African-American Families
• Family Relationships and Response to Health Issues
• Social Media’ and Business’ Relationships in Indonesia
• Values’ Influence on a Romantic Relationship
• How the Concept of Brahman-Atman Can Benefit Human-Environment Relationship
• Relationship Between Brilliance and Mental Illness
• Ethics of Infidelity and Cheating in Relationships
• Developing the Coach-Athlete Relationships
• The Broken Relationship Interview Analysis
• Social Networks’ Impact on Relationships
• The Relationship Between Parenting Styles
• The Relationship Between Race and Crime in the United States
• Relationships Between Reproduction, Heredity, and DNA
• The Relationships Among Tests and Scales, Populations, Reliability and Validity
• Relationship Among the Religions
• Sex Ed and Power in Relationships
• Interpersonal Relationships and Risk Perception
• “The Worth of Love and Human Relationships” by Oscar Wilde
• The Theme of Jealousy in Relationships Reflected in Art
• Bullying and School Drop Out Rate Relationship Analysis
• The Analysis of the Structure of Human Relationships
• “Children’s Emotional Development: Challenges in Their Relationships to Parents, Peers, and Friends”: Article Review
• Childhood Relationships & Adolescent Mental Health
• The Relationship Between Understaffing of Nurses and Patient Safety in Hospitals
• “Night”: A Reflection on Elie’s Relationship with His Father
• Group Dynamics and Relationships in Teams
• Single Mothers and Sons Relationships
• Nursing: Human-to-Human Relationship Model
• Father and Son Relationship: “Night” by Elie Wiesel
• Dating Stereotypes and Relationships Development
• Building Family and Community Relationships: Guide
• Relationship between Asthma and Smoking
• Perceptions about Relationships around Schooling
• The Autism-Gender Relationship Analysis
• The Nature of Leadership as an Organizational Relationship
• The Myth and History Relationship in Homer’s Iliad
• The Ethical Principle of Dual Relationships
• Communication Milestones in Relationships
• Doctor-Nurse Relationships: Lessons Learnt
• The Fourth Amendment and Technology Relationship
• The US-Israel Relationship and Foreign Challenges
• Money and Relationship in King Lear by Shakespeare
• Relationships and Christian Morality
• The Therapeutic Couple: Non-Working Relationships
• The Relationship Between Sustainable Development and a High Standard of Living
• A Care Ethics Position: Doctor-Patient Relationships
• Collaboration: Impact on Employee Relationships
• The Relationship Between Native Americans and White Settlers
• The Brain Structure and Cognition Relationship
• Critical Racial Theory and Interracial Relationships
• Unveiling the Relationship Between CSR and Employee Turnover
• Economic Inequality and Its Relationship to Poverty
• Database Diagrams and Relationships
• The Relationship Between Gender and GPA
• The Media and Print Relationship
• The Employee Salary and Market Rate Relationship
• The Theology and Science Roles and Relationships
• Father-Son Relationships in “Night” by Elie Wiesel
• Causal Relationships Between Variables
• The Similarity in Reasons to Start and End a Romantic Relationship
• Therapy for Building Meaningful Relationships
• Effective Communication Tips for Better Relationships
• Comparison of Current Relationships Between US and Russia to Cold War
• Ideologies and Their Relationship Between Violence and Popularity
• Sexual Abuse and Its Impact on Relationships
• Organization and Employee Relationships
• The Global Industry and Nature Relationships
• Nonverbal Communication in Relationships
• The Parent-Child Relationship in Sports
• Human Relationships and Happiness
• The Impact of Alzheimer’s Disease on Relationships
• Becoming an Adult and Forming Relationships
• The US Dollar Value and Demand Relationship
• Japan-US International Trade Relationship
• Identifying Employer-Employee Relationship
• “Relationship Between Logistical Support Factors…” by Akanmu
• Successful and Unsuccessful Strategies in Relationships
• Cohabitation: A Free Relationship
• A Relationship Between the Individual and Society
• Relationship Between the Medieval Music and Culture
• Elderly Health and Substance Abuse Relationship
• A Feedback in the Manager-Employee Relationship
• Performance Management and Working Relationships
• The History of Relationships Between Police and African Americans
• Relationships in the “Night” Novel by Elie Wiesel
• Technology and Employment Relationship Management
• Strategies for Relationships, Groups, and Organizations
• Wealth, Opportunity, and Teen Pregnancy Relationship
• Relationship of the History of the Western Civilization II Timeline to Historiography
• The Relationship Between Grassroots Movements and Activists
• Social Capital and COVID-19 Relationship
• Entrepreneurial Networking and Relationship Capital
• Customer Relationship Management Software Implementation
• Sports and Religion: The Relationship Analysis
• The Federal Reserve and the Bible Relationship
• Relationships in the “For Colored Girls” Film
• Government Regulations of Employment Relationship
• Relationship Between the Past and the Present in “Kindred” Novel
• The Relationship Between the Use of Electronics and Consumer Behaviors
• Christ’s Relationships with Wealth and Poverty
• Coaching: Responsibility, Strategies, and Relationships With Client
• Building Strong Relationships at Work
• Hagia Sophia and Related Spiritual Relationships
• Religious Beliefs and Ecology Relationship
• The Intimate Relationships Development
• Philosophy of Religion: The Topic of the Relationship Between God
• Communication Inhibitors’ Effect on Relationships
• Halloween Culture and Influenza Infection Relationship
• Relationship Between Poverty and Health People in 2020
• Human Psychology and Physiology Relationship
• Corporate Governance and Voluntary Disclosure Relationship
• Direct Marketing and Relationship With Customers
• Successful and Unsuccessful Relationships
• Investing in Stocks and Risk-Return Relationship
• Christianity and Sports: The Relationship Analysis
• The Doctor-Patient Relationship: Legal Duties
• Morality Policy Making: The Relationship between Politics and Morality
• The Relationship Between Economic and Political Freedom
• Distancing Influence on Economic Relationships
• Healthcare Quality and Leadership Relationship
• Double Standard in Sexual Relationships
• The Impact of My Emotional Intelligence on Personal Relationships
• Trust and Relationships in Contemporary American Cinema
• Relationship Between Gender and Death Anxiety
• HIV Disease’s and Kaposi Sarcoma’s Relationship
• Barriers to Leaving Abusive Relationships
• Christianity: Afterlife and Relationship With Jesus
• Entrepreneurship: Relationship Marketing
• Relationship Between Monetary Policy and House Price in USA
• Standard Employment Relationship in Canada
• Study of a Parent-Child Relationship
• Relationships Between the European Settlers and the Native Americans
• Atopic Dermatitis and Eczema Relationship
• Exercise and Heart Attacks: The Relationship Among Women
• Quantitative Structure Activity Relationship Analysis to the Mutagenicity of Nitroaromatics Compounds
• IW Customer Relationship Management Plan
• The Relationship Between HIV and Kaposi Sarcoma
• Research Critique: The Importance of Relationships in Mental Care
• The Relationship Between Spirituality and Organ Donation
• The Relationship Between Breast Cancer and Genes
• Healthcare Research and Social Change Relationship
• Sexual Satisfaction Importance in the Romantic Relationships
• The Relationship Cafe: Cultural Analysis
• Human Systems and Relationships Observations
• Healthcare Practices Problems: Relationships With Physicians
• Beta-Agonist Use and Death From Asthma Relationship
• The Intergovernmental Relationship Among Public Health Care Agencies
• The Relationship of Linear Motion Equations
• Music and the Second Reconstruction Relationship
• International Relationships During Cold War
• The Relationships Between Technology Progress and Communication
• Meaningful Relationships in the Age of Social Media
• Romantic Relationships and Parenting
• Approaches to Love and Relationship in Poetry
• A Preliminary Randomized Controlled Evaluation of a Universal Healthy Relationships Promotion Program for Youth
• Artist Profession: Relationship to Drawing
• Customer Relationship Management Study Critique
• Big Data in Human Relationships
• Neurotransmitters and Behaviour Relationship
• Father-Son Relationship in Night
• Relationship Between Men and the Environment
• Rogers and a Therapeutic Relationship
• Effects of Relationships Among Interacting Populations
• The Evolution of Romantic Encounters and Norms and Actions Within Relationships
• Ethics, Morality, and Legality Relationship
• Effective Communication in Close Romantic Relationships in the First Year
• Interpersonal Relationships and Organizational Abuse in Wall Street Movie
• Sales and Promotions Relationship
• COVID-19: Intergovernmental Relationship and Census
• State v. Miranda: Special Relationship With a Minor Child
• Principal-Agent Relationships: Business Law Concept
• Sex in the Media: Effects on Behaviors and Relationships
• Molecular Composition and Relationships Between Organisms
• Relationship Between Coaching Actions and Influences
• Mother-Adult Daughter Relationships Within Dementia Care
• Communication in Relationships: Communication Styles
• The Relationship Between C-Commerce and Corporate Portal
• Implementation of a Customer Relationship Management
• Physical Activity and Relationship Characteristics
• Executive Board Members of SMB: Team and Relationship
• Racial Diversity and Educability Relationship
• Relationship Between a President’s Leadership and Campaign Styles
• International Business: The US – UAE Relationship
• Governing Business Activity: Small and Big Firms Relationship
• Phones and Society: The Relationship
• Customer Relationship Management: Business Relations
• The Race or Class and Sexuality: Relationship
• Problems Which Ruin Relationships
• A Closer Look at Age, Peers, and Delinquency Relationship
• Homelessness and Poor Health Relationship
• Organizational Management and Performance: Inter-Organizational Relationships
• Parapsychology and Psychology Relationships
• Attraction, Relationships and Communication
• Relationships Between Maori and Pakeha During the Early Contact Period
• Interracial Relationships and Marriage in the USA
• Race Has Nothing to Do With Relationships
• Films and Tourism: Antecedent Relationship
• Relationship Between Ancient Greek and Roman Architecture
• E-Business Changes Organisation-Customer Relationships
• The Relationship Between Customer E-Support and Phone Technology
• Cross-Cultural Executives’ Perceptions in Quality Customer Service and Relationship
• Relationship Between Social Location and Health Status
• Retail Environment: Employee Relationship, Channel Strengths and Weaknesses
• Single African American Mothers and Their Relationship With Adolescent Sons
• The Relationship Between Executive Functioning and Weight Loss
• Relationship Between Critical Thinking, Problem-Solving, Decision-Making, and Stress Management in Nursing
• Relationship Between Stress and Nicotine Intake in Middle Age Adults
• Single African American Mothers’ Experiences of Relationships With Their Sons
• Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 for China-US Relationships
• Examining the Relationship Between Therapeutic Self-Care and Adverse Events for Home Care Clients in Ontario, Canada
• Nurse’s Previous Abusive Relationship and Practice
• The Relationships Between Nurses and Their Patients
• Relationships Between Nurses and Physicians: Effects on Patient Outcomes
• Abusive Relationships and Domestic Violence Treatment
• Nurses’ Abusive Relationships and Patient Outcomes
• Interpersonal Relationships Against Life Discontent
• Counseling for Healthy Relationships With Parents
• Personal Relationship With Alcohol Abuse
• The Relationship Between Unemployment and Economic Growth
• Relationship Between the Code of Civil Rights and the Bill of Rights
• International Relationships and Foreign Policy in American Movies
• Technological Influence on Personal Relationships
• Biology and Happiness Relationship
• Sacred, Sacrament and Relationship to Christ
• Attachment Theories in Child-Parent Relationships
• Homelessness and Mass Incarceration Relationship
• God’s Laws and Gospels Relationship
• The Relationship Between Depression and Self-Esteem
• Single Afro-American Mother-Son Relationships
• Crusades and Western Europe-Eurasia Relationship
• Employment Relationship: Nature and Tensions
• “Developing Relationship with Employers” by Stensrud
• Crimes in Intimate Relationships
• Substance Abuse and Frustration Relationships
• Sports and Leadership Skills Relationship
• Father-Son Relationship in Wiesel’s “Night”
• Domestic Violence in Same/Opposite-Sex Relationships
• Customer Compaints, Relationships and Sales Ethics
• Relationship Education Program and Its Evaluation
• Family Relationships and Divorce Psychology
• The Relationships Between American Revolution and Cultural Diversity
• The Relationship Between Asthma and Smoking
• Race and Education Level Relationship in America
• Cohabitation Relationships and Their Benefits
• Reactive Oxygen Species and Cancer Cells Relationship
• Social Roles and Functions in Relationships
• Elementary Relationships Theory Application to Data Banks
• Putin’s Relationship with the Russian People
• Trade Openness and Economic Growth’s Relationship
• Depression and Self-Esteem Relationship
• Five Components of a Lasting Relationship
• Professional Relationships in Healthcare Delivery
• Vaccines and Autism Relationship and Debates
• Management’ and Employees’ Relationship
• American Dollar and Russian Ruble Relationship
• Funder and Grantee: Building a Relationship
• Market Failures and Public Response Relationship
• Childhood Obesity: The Relationships Between Overweight and Parental Education
• Relationship Between PTSD and Religion
• Physical Beauty and Advertising Relationship
• Weight Gain, Atherosclerosis, Diabetes Relationship
• Dehumanization and Violence in Relationships
• Social Media Changing Interpersonal Relationships
• Diagnosis Disclosure and Child-Parent Relationship
• States-Multinationals Relationship and Asian Miracle
• Nurse Staffing and Retention Rates Relationship
• Venezuela and Colombia Relationships
• Mind-Body Relationship in Psychobiological Studies
• Social Relationships and Development in Childhood
• Center Parcs Company: Customer Relationships Management
• Insights Into the Psychology of Relationships
• Art and Science Relationship in Nursing
• Mind, Consciousness and Body Relationship
• Diabetes and Dementia Relationships and Nursing
• Cuba’s International Policies and Relationships
• Segmentation in Customer Relationship Management
• The Impact of Relationships With Parents on the Future
• Mind-Body Relationship in Psychobiological View
• Building Family and Community Relationships Standard
• Genograms and Relationship Maps as Medical Tools
• Childhood Maltreatment’ and Psychosis’ Relationship
• Management and Leadership: Defining the Relationship
• Father-Son’ Relationship in the Book Night by Elie Wiesel
• Tanning Booths and Skin Cancer Relationship – Medicine
• Consumer Science: Company and Clients Relationships
• Developing Empowered Relationships Within the Organization
• Family Relationship in Marion Wiesel’s Book “Night”
• The Relationship Between Low Calorie Diet Intake and Longevity
• The Impact of Abusive Experiences on Nursing Practitioner’s Performance With the Victims of Domestic Violence
• Relationships: Different Views on Gay Marriage
• What Are the Aspects of the Relationship Between School and Family in Pupils?
• Why Student Shouldn’t Have Relationship With Opposite Sex Before Time?
• How Can Self-Disclosure Help in a Counselling Skills Relationship?
• How Communication Can Affect Your Relationship With Your Partner?
• How Did Henrik Ibsen’s Work Develop in Relationship to the Conventions of Realist Theatre?
• How Does Browning Present the Relationship Between Men and Women in His Two Poems?
• How Does Competition Affect the Relationship Between Innovation and Productivity?
• Was the Relationship Between Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson Love or Rape?
• What Is the True Meaning of Relationship?
• What Are the Between Differences Between Men and Women in Intimacy Relationship?
• Why Women Suffer Disadvantage in the Employment Relationship?
• How to Understand the Value of a Relationship?
• What Is the Relationship Context of Human Behavior and Development?
• What Is the Characteristics of a Helping Relationship?
• What Is the Meaning of Therapeutic Relationship?
• How Attraction Works When We Build Up Our Social Relationship?
• How and Why Does Dickens Show the Changing Relationship Between Pip & Joe?
• Why Women Still Stay In Abusive Relationship?
• Why Trust and Respect Are Crucial for a Relationship?
• Why Romeo and Juliet’s Relationship Was Doomed From the Outset?
• Why Parents Should Have a Special Relationship?
• Whta Are Family and Relationship Benefits of Travel Experiences?
• How Does Family Relationship Change Canadian Aboriginal Culture?
• What Is the Importance of Peer and Family Relationship on an Adolescent?
• How Does Materialism Influence Family Relationship?

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These essay examples and topics on Relationship were carefully selected by the StudyCorgi editorial team. They meet our highest standards in terms of grammar, punctuation, style, and fact accuracy. Please ensure you properly reference the materials if you’re using them to write your assignment.

This essay topic collection was updated on January 9, 2024 .

150+ Strong Relationship Topics for Academic Discussion

Table of Contents

The relationship is one of the interesting subjects with a lot of liveliness. Basically, a relationship refers to physical or emotional intimacy between two or more people. The majority of the topics on relationships focus more on people’s behavior and mental state. Hence, for writing Social Science or Psychology assignments, you can prefer relationship topics.

For discussion, there are endless relationship topics available. But, when it comes to preparing relationship essays, handle the topics from various angles by taking reality into account. For authenticity, explain the major points about relationships using real-life examples or evidence. Right now, do you want to prepare an excellent relationship essay or research paper? Are you looking for great relationship topics? Cool! We are here to help you out.

In this blog post, we have suggested a list of the top strong relationship topics for you to deal with. Continue reading and get more brilliant essay topic ideas on relationships. You can use the topics listed here for essays, debates, and group discussions.

List of the Best Relationship Topics and Ideas

The relationship is an amazing discussion subject. It is generally wide and can be addressed from different perspectives. For writing relationship essays, you can choose topics that focus on bonding with mothers, fathers, siblings, life partners, friends, or relatives. But while discussing make sure to consider various aspects like gender, age gap, expressions, culture, etc.

Listed below are a few interesting relationship topics that you can choose for your assignments.

Simple and Basic Relationship Topics

• The Relationship between Race and Gender
• Relationship between Individual and Society
• Gender Communication in Romantic Relationships
• Pros and cons of a housewife.
• Relationship, Task, and Process Conflicts at Workplace
• Our first impression regarding college professors is always right.
• Is male parenting versus female parenting strictness work the same way?
• What factors lead to rivalry between siblings?
• Friendship Type – Companionship Relationship
• Participative and Relationship Theories
• What do you value in a relationship?
• Where do you hope to be living in the next five years?
• What was your first impression of me?
• What is the most romantic place you’ve ever visited?
• If you want children, how many children do you want?
• Have you ever been cheated on?
• What is the best gift you’ve ever given a partner?
• What is your favorite love song?

Relationship Topics for Debates

• Can love be faked?
• Is being faithful hard?
• Marriage versus live-in relationship
• Feminism – good or bad?
• Is arguing a natural part of every relationship?
• Coeducation versus single-sex education
• Old age homes – good or bad?
• Daughters are more of an asset than sons, for parents
• Sex before marriage – right or wrong?
• Is it okay to marry an elder lady?
• Family versus love of life – whom to choose?
• Pros and Cons of Office Love
• Love marriage versus arranged marriage
• Online dating – threat or blessings?
• Extramarital affairs – pros & cons
• Should love always be a sacrifice?
• The pros and cons of househusbands.
• How does modern television shape our perception of love?
• The portrayal of love in World Films.
• Are long-distance relationships destined to fail?
• How can love create miracles in daily life?
• The portrayal of love in modern pop music.

Essay Topics on Love and Relationship

• Surviving heartbreak: males versus females.
• Discuss the portrayal of love in Indian Movies.
• The essence of platonic love between two males.
• My favorite example of love in literary works.
• Is there such a thing as love in the purely American style?
• Do opposite-character couples live in peace compared to people who follow the same vision?
• Why do elderly couples show genuine love?
• Mother-daughter versus father-son affection and love comparison.

Amazing Essay Topics on Relationship

• Creating a Healthy Loving Relationship
• Why do feminists often turn to violence?
• Can celebrities be true heroes?
• Are online relationships real?
• What is the red flag alert in a relationship for you?
• How can you comfort a crying infant?
• Long-distance relationships are always meant to fail.
• How have your friends changed as you were growing up?
• Do people without parental affection grow up locked inside?
• Should children be shielded from violence in the media?
• How do children perceive politics?
• Should teenagers be allowed to vote and participate in politics?
• Parenting advice versus things we learn at school.
• Is equality between men and women in the workplace justified?
• What book has influenced you for the major change in your life?
• Role of Scientifically Based Knowledge on Family Relationships
• Influences of Abusive Experiences on the Performance of Nurse Practitioners

Relationship Topics for Group Discussion

• Jealousy and love: is it justified?
• Teenage rebellion: how did I survive these times?
• When two individuals love the same person: emotional solutions.
• Do we learn political preferences from our parents?
• Can a person be happy on his or her own?
• How do children define love?
• The challenges of technology for the older generation.
• How do we participate in volunteering work?
• Love and responsibility: religious fear or character traits.
• Family relationships and communication

Read more: Outstanding Music Essay Topics For Students To Consider

Great Relationship Topics

• Childhood fears and adult phobias.
• The role of social media in relationships.
• Are we born with racial prejudice or do we learn it?
• Social skills and creativity of autistic children.
• The challenges of establishing strong relationships in the world of technology.
• Attachment theory applied to family relationships
• Relationship between job satisfaction and performance
• The portrayal of friendship in “The Friends” TV series.
• Family and relationship factors predicting lives of the children of alcoholics
• The Relationship between Social Workers and Inmates
• How does divorce affect future relationships?
• How do mobile games affect family ties?
• The core pillars of love me.
• What coping mechanisms do parents of disabled children have?
• What can be done to make co-parenting more effective?
• Effects of romantic jealousy on maintaining a committed relationship
• Explore the relationships between self-esteem, self-consistency, and self-enhancement.
• How is the married couple’s relationship affected once the children leave home?
• How do families today deal with depression in the family?
• How does family size affect children’s self-esteem?

Outstanding Relationship Topics

• Healthy Interpersonal Relationship
• Family Systems and Relationship Development
• Father-son Relationship In The Odyssey by Homer
• Relationship and Marriage Coaching
• Hamlet’s Relationship with His Mother Gertrude
• Break up of a Relationship
• Cultural Competence and the Patient-Clinician Relationship
• Should gay marriage be legalized?
• Relationship Between Mothers and Daughters
• Good Parent-children Relationship
• Development Stages in Infant-Father Relationship
• Relationship Advice on Conflicts Between Romantic Partners
• Legal Issues of Ending a Relationship
• Romantic Relationship Stages and Characteristics
• Perception of sons versus daughters in African American families.
• Counseling Interview in Family and Relationship Therapy
• How to Ruin a Good Relationship
• Violence in an Adolescent Relationship
• Marital Satisfaction Inventory for Relationship Therapy
• How would you interact with your younger self?

Awesome Relationship Research Topics

• Discuss the impact of romantic novels on the Perception of Love.
• Explain the relationship between twin brothers
• How Does Materialism Influence Family Relationships?
• Why Parents Should Have a Special Relationship?
• Discuss the Family and Relationship Benefits of Travel Experiences
• Why do Women Stay In Abusive Relationships?
• How Does Competition Affect the Relationship Between Innovation and Productivity?
• Analyze the money issues in a relationship.
• Explain attachment theory and romantic relationships.
• Freedom in life and relationships.

Trending Relationship Topics

• African American households’ attitudes on boys vs girls.
• the connection between a person’s occupation and musical preferences.
• With your younger self, how would you behave?
• Difference between a housewife and a married working woman.
• The connection between a person’s occupation and musical preferences.
• In 2022, would English boarding schools still be useful?
• From 19th-century morals to contemporary freedoms.
• Should young people be protected from media violence?

Good Topics on Relationship

• Do our parents influence our political views?
• How did I get through my adolescent rebellion?
• Why do older couples express genuine affection?
• The most shocking moments of my first trip to a foreign country.
• How do we get involved in volunteer work?
• Is it possible to be happy on one’s own?
• When two people fall in love with the same person: emotional solutions
• Is there a connection between jealousy and love?
• Love and responsibility: religious phobias or personality traits?
• What does love mean to children?
• Is jealousy justified in love?
• What does an open relationship mean?
• Pros and cons of open relationship
• Impact of Facebook and other social media sites on teenage relationships
• Discuss the connection between the occupation and hobbies of a person
• How do movies on crime impact relationships?
• Analyze the role of trust and commitment in a happy and healthy relationship
• Importance of respect in a romantic relationship
• Role of gratitude and admiration family relationships
• Analyze the importance of relationships with family and friends in life

The Bottom Line

From the list of topics suggested in this blog post, choose any topic of your choice. You can use the topic as it is or can also modify it as per your interest. But, during the topic selection, give high preference to the topic that offers room for you to generate more arguments or opinions. If your selected topic is too broad, make sure to narrow it down. Especially, to present the various dimensions of the relationship, select cause and effect essay type.

In case, you are not sure what relationship topic to choose, call us for  assignment writing help . The subject experts on our platform will offer help with topic selection. In addition to that, our professionals will also provide assistance for writing relationship essays and research papers according to your requirements.

Without any hesitation, use our premium-quality assignment writing service at an affordable price and enjoy more scholastic benefits it offers. Taking assistance from our scholarly writers will aid you in finishing your work prior to the deadline without plagiarism and securing top grades.

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‘Disability Intimacy’ starts a long-overdue conversation

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Book Review

Disability Intimacy: Essays on Love, Care, and Desire

Edited by Alice Wong Vintage: 384 pages, $19 If you buy books linked on our site, The Times may earn a commission from Bookshop.org , whose fees support independent bookstores.

To whom does desire belong? How about love and care? These are the questions at the heart of “Disability Intimacy,” a new book of essays and ephemera collected by the San Francisco activist Alice Wong, and the answers are painfully obvious: Those human experiences are for everyone. What’s less obvious to many, and acutely painful to some of us, is that those questions needed to be asked and answered. This book needed to exist.

It is a longstanding and unfortunate truth that disabled people are often seen as undesirable and even as unable to experience desire, love or care in the ways that all individuals do. As disabled people we understand how false that notion is and how harmful it can be. Giving and receiving love — physically or verbally, in a context of romance, sex, close friendship or family bonds — is as much our right to experience as anyone else’s, and our stories of intimate connections and losses are worth telling as much as anyone else’s. So I commend Wong and the collection’s 40 contributors for taking on this topic.

“Disability Intimacy” is not an extended lament. Many of its standouts are downright celebratory, as well as lessons in engaging storytelling. “The Last Walk” by Melissa Hung explores the grief of losing a beloved friend while simultaneously cherishing their last moments together and the sling bag that became a physical memory of her friend Judy. In “Hi, Are You Single?” by Ryan J. Haddad, one of the standout poems in the collection, Haddad explores the messy, awkward and welcome way a hookup can support their collective desire for pleasure.

Having contributed to and read Wong’s anthology from 2020, “Disability Visibility,” I thought I knew what I was getting into, but the two collections are quite different. It was disappointing to come away from “Intimacy” without a theme as clear as that of “Visibility,” perhaps in part reflecting the older collection’s more straightforward subject matter. Love is complicated. And 40 contributors is a lot.

As one of the first of its kind to attempt what it is attempting, “Disability Intimacy” has the unfair expectation to be everything for everyone, to answer the question of desirability for an entire community that is not monolithic. Wong refuses to shut out the “other” in favor of the conventionally digestible. This collection shines in its entries that take big swings, discussing topics such as BDSM, queer love and intergenerational relationships — and even laziness, a concept that one essay reclaims and celebrates as a purposeful act of rest, epitomized by the love between a father and son who connect over turning out the light and climbing in bed to take naps. In these pieces, the authors seem to be living as unapologetically on the page as they do in life.

Tucked among the essays, readers will be delighted to also discover poems and even a conversation between two disabled people of color about redefining intimacy for themselves, ableism and what they refuse to call intimacy. It’s a refreshing and effective shakeup of the anthology form. It’s also a lot to take in.

I had to reread certain sections as some of the points got lost along the way, and sometimes I found myself mentally rearranging the book because entries felt misplaced. Although many of the pieces could have been shorter, none should have been left out. Might the cause have been better served with these many entries divided between two volumes? This could have encouraged the reader to sit with the thoughts and feelings that come up rather than rushing onward.

There is often a lot of pressure placed on books of this kind that amplify marginalized voices or tackle taboo topics, but remember: Sometimes a book does the world a service not because it is encyclopedic or full of answers but simply because it raises questions and starts conversations.

In the end, what we readers ask of ourselves is what counts. Whom do we allow ourselves to desire, and why? Toward whose stories do we gravitate, and whom do we leave in the margins? How will we expand our own worldview?

Keah Brown , a journalist, activist, actor and screenwriter, is the author of “ The Pretty One ” and “ The Secret Summer Promise .”

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The 3 Keys to a Great Relationship—Starting Now

Renovate tour relationship by improving romance, communication, and sex..

Posted April 25, 2024 | Reviewed by Tyler Woods

• Why Relationships Matter
• Find a therapist to strengthen relationships
• Great Relationships are not an Accident - you can learn to Become Passion
• There are three key areas great couples learn to master - Thrill, Intimacy, and Sensuality
• Rate yourself right now - where are you strong, where are you weak?

Janine and Ed sought me out because they hadn’t had sex in four months. They described themselves as “best friends.” They texted each other frequently throughout the day, sharing updates about kids and chores. But they were friends, not lovers. Janine rarely wore anything other than yoga pants, and Ed was more likely to kiss the baby than his wife. Not only was their sexual life at a complete halt, but they didn’t even flirt with each other. Janine and Ed needed to work on their passion triangle .

The passion triangle is the model I use to teach couples in my online Become Passion program how to create lifelong romantic and sexual passion. You want your relationship to be built on a strong, reliable foundation. If I’m looking to build a rewarding, passionate relationship, a relationship that becomes deeper and more connected as time goes on, then I want to build that on a very strong foundation—a triangle.

The 3 Components of the Passion Triangle

Thrill: The ineffable sense of excitement, interest, and attraction to your partner that you experienced when you fell in love, but that often fades.

Intimacy : A deep sense of knowing and being known that develops over time through shared vulnerabilities and deepening emotional connection.

Sensuality: The spectrum of romantic, erotic, and sexual connection between two people, from hand-holding to wild sexual delight.

If you are like Janine and Ed, you are strong in some areas of the triangle and weak in others. But if you want sustainable passion and connection, you need all three sides to be strong. Now, let’s begin by examining each side of the passion triangle a little more deeply.

Imagine you are seated at a table in your favorite restaurant, waiting for your partner. You’ve just returned from a week away on business, and you have missed them terribly. As you sit there scanning the sidewalk through the window, searching for them among the crush of people hurrying home from work, you feel an edge of excitement. There is an aroused quality as you seek your beloved’s face. When you spot them, there is a small rush of thrill in your body and emotions. It’s unsettling in a delicious way. That’s what I’m talking about in terms of thrill.

Do you feel that titillating anticipation of thrill these days? Or are you more likely to watch cat videos on your phone than scan the restaurant for the welcome face of the one you have chosen to spend your life with?

When I use the word “intimacy,” I’m talking about deep emotional connectedness and loving friendship . True intimacy is a sense of being deeply known by the other. To be known is to share your secrets, to reveal your best, and also to reveal the parts of yourself you are not proud of. In a deeply intimate relationship, you learn to trust that your partner will love and accept you no matter what. You don’t need to hide the fact that you have vulnerabilities and fears, and that you’re not perfect.

Real intimacy develops over time and through many shared life experiences. Intimate partners share multiple joys and sorrows. They are in it, to quote the traditional marriage vows, “for better and worse, richer and poorer.” As an awakened lover, you realize your partner is not responsible for your happiness . You make efforts to deepen and refresh the intimate connection between you by paying mindful and loving attention to your beloved as though you are still infatuated. You learn to see your imperfect partner and your imperfect relationship with clarity—and love them more than ever.

For the purpose of the passion triangle, when I say “sensuality,” I mean the entire spectrum of sensual and sexual energy that you feel within you and exchange with your partner. There are untold possible sensual delights. However, if you are like many people in a relationship, your sexual spectrum has narrowed to only a few colors. Perhaps in the beginning, you made love all over the house and nibbled on each other’s toes. And then life got busy, and Marriage Inc. took over. You know, the routine, tag-team partnership of two jobs, two kids, two busy people, and one neglected lover life. Your sex life became predictable, infrequent, or nonexistent. But you can change that. These teachings of the passion triangle will help you expand your sensual repertoire.

There are almost limitless ways that two hearts, minds, and bodies can connect in the sensual realm—cuddling naked to soul-shaking love-making. This sensuality can be present at orgasm and, just as importantly, when you are holding hands in the woods, and at every moment you spend together or apart.

Balance Your Triangle for Great Love and Sex

To have a fantastic long-term sexual and romantic relationship , all three sides of the passion triangle are vital. When they are out of balance, your relationship will suffer. You can end up with love but no lust, or excitement without connection. Yet when all three sides of the passion triangle are strong—wow. You feel accepted and known, and you feel alive and intrigued, and you are able to reveal your deepest sexual desires.

Now, back to Janine and Ed. I tell them it’s time for them to take action and cultivate more thrill and sensuality. I coach them to send each other one sexy or romantic text a day. Janine tells Ed that she misses the guy who used to sweep her off for surprise dates—the manly, romantic lover under the sweet, gentle daddy. He says he misses seeing her in feminine clothes, looking pretty and sexy. Together, they come up with a plan for Ed to court her again—he will plan dates; she will dress up. They pledge to make one night a month an erotic date—they wanted to explore combining emotional intimacy with deep sexual desires. Over time, with commitment, effort, and a sense of play, this couple begins to strengthen the sensuality and thrill in their marriage and uncover the passion under the passivity. They learn that good things come in threes.

Excerpted from Buddha’s Bedroom: The Mindful Loving Path to Sexual Passion and Lifelong Intimacy . Reprinted with permission: New Harbinger Publications, Inc. Copyright © 2019 Cheryl Fraser

Join Dr. Cheryl live. This week she is teaching her free online Passion Masterclass: https://drcherylfraser.mykajabi.com/masterclass

Cheryl Fraser, Ph.D. , is an award-winning psychologist, sex therapist, author, speaker, and creator of the Become Passion online immersion couples program.

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Everything Taylor Swift Seemingly Reveals About Her Relationship with Matty Healy on Tortured Poets Department

Taylor Swift and The 1975 frontman Matty Healy dated in the spring of 2023

Taylor Swift doesn’t kiss and tell — but the lyrics of her new album The Tortured Poets Department may offer fans some insight into her relationship with Matty Healy .

On Tortured Poets , which came out April 19, Swift chronicles various stages of love, from the excitement of new romance to the devastating end of a relationship that had forever potential.

While the Grammy winner, 34, doesn’t name-check The 1975 frontman, a number of songs on the record seem to reference the star, whom Swift dated for several months in the spring of 2023, nearly a decade after they first sparked romance rumors.

On “Guilty as Sin?” Swift — who dated actor Joe Alwyn for six years before their breakup went public in April 2023 — sings about having strong romantic feelings and “fatal fantasies” for someone from her past while in a relationship with someone else.

The song contains several overt references to Healy; in the opening line, Swift sings about the object of her affections sending her the 1989 synth-pop song “The Downtown Lights” by the Scottish band The Blue Nile.

Healy, 35, has called The Blue Nile his “favorite band of all time,” and has said in multiple interviews that The 1975’s song “Love It If We Made It” was inspired by “The Downtown Lights.”

“‘Love If We Made It’ is based on a song by the Blue Nile called ‘Downtown Lights.’ That's another one where I wanted to reference that song; I didn't want to hide away from referencing it,” Healy told Entertainment Weekly in 2018. “I wanted it to be f---ing obvious to people that know.”

Later, on "The Black Dog," Swift shouts out another favorite band of Healy's in the pop-punk group The Starting Line. The 1975 covered the band's 2002 song "The Best of Me" in concert in April and May 2023, days before Swift and Healy were first seen holding hands. "The Best of Me" tells the story of two lovers who spent time apart, but eventually found their way back to one another after "missing each other too much to have had to let go."

"I just don't understand how you don't miss me / In The Black Dog when someone plays The Starting Line / And you jump up, but she's too young / To know this song / That was intertwined in the magic fabric of our dreaming," Swift sings.

On “Guilty as Sin?” Swift sings about “recalling things we never did” and “long[ing] for our trysts,” questioning whether she can be considered guilty of cheating if she’s never physically been with the person she’s thinking about.

Then on “Fresh Out the Slammer,” Swift — who is currently dating NFL star Travis Kelce — sings about feeling ready and able to dive into a long-simmering bond with someone after exiting a different relationship that was holding her back and making her feel trapped.

The song contains lyrics about “runnin’ back home” to someone, and being “at the starting line” of something new — and also hints that her new love is not American, as she sings that she’s returning “to the one who says I’m the girl of his American dreams.” (Both Healy and Alwyn are British .)

Robert Kamau/GC Images

Healy and Swift first met in the fall of 2014, and rumors that they were an item swirled after Swift attended several 1975 concerts and rocked band merch (Healy also wore a shirt on stage that featured her 1989 album cover ). They struck up a romance that went public in May 2023 — and though they were broken up by June, the fling was not well-received by some of Swift’s fans due to controversial comments Healy made and laughed at, and later apologized for, on a podcast.

Swift appears to address criticisms from fans on songs like “I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can)” (on which she convinces herself that she can change the ways of the man she loves in spite of his “revolting” jokes and the world’s certainty that he’s bad news) and “But Daddy I Love Him,” on which she says she’s paying no mind to haters amid her “true love” with a “wild boy.”

The title track, “The Tortured Poets Department,” also seems to reference Healy, and its title appears to be a joke aimed at him for bringing a typewriter to her apartment in the vein of famed poets like Dylan Thomas.

“You left your typewriter at my apartment / Straight from the Tortured Poets Department / I think some things I never say / Like, ‘Who uses typewriters anyway?’” she sings.

The fact that Healy has previously spoken of his affinity for typewriters lends credence to the theory that the song is in fact about him; in 2018, he told GQ that he “really” likes working on typewriters and putting pen to paper — and even hinted at having crushes on unnamed “pop stars.”

“The thing is with typewriters, and writing with pen to paper, there’s a kind of an element of commitment that goes with the ceremony of it… It requires you to concentrate a bit better,” he said. “So I think it’s important to have a [note]book. So it’s mainly like, stories that I write about my dreams of being in love with other pop stars.”

On the song, Swift sings about her partner smoking, then eating “seven bars of chocolate,” which could be a reference to The 1975’s breakthrough 2013 hit “Chocolate.” She also refers to him as a “tattooed golden retriever,” and Healy is heavily tattooed.

The song hints that the relationship is not without its drawbacks, but that ultimately, Swift would be thrilled if it ended in marriage (“[You] awaken with dread, pounding nails in your head / But I’ve read this one where you come undone / I chose this cyclone with you,” she sings). 

Later, she sings of a moment where the object of her affections told a mutual friend named Lucy that “you’d kill yourself if I ever leave” — and Swift had said that to another mutual friend named Jack, which made her felt “seen.”

It’s unclear if the names were chosen at random, but Jack Antonoff cowrote the song with Swift and also produced The 1975’s fifth album Being Funny in a Foreign Language . Lucy Dacus, meanwhile, is a member of the trio Boygenius with Phoebe Bridgers , and Bridgers opened for Swift on the Eras Tour and is also a close friend of Healy’s .

John Shearer/Getty

“At dinner you take my ring off my middle finger and put it on the one people put wedding rings on / And that’s the closest I’ve come to my heart exploding,” Swift sings on the track.

The joy felt in the lyrics of “The Tortured Poets Department” appears to be short-lived, however. On “loml,” Swift sings about rekindling an old flame, only to see the relationship disintegrate as quickly as it began.

The song’s lyrics tell the story of someone “waltzing back” into her life after first meeting as “kids,” and how he told her she “reformed” him and was the love of his life. The promises were empty, though, and she calls the song’s subject a “con man” who sold “a fool a get-love-quick scheme” with a “counterfeit” love.

“It was legendary / It was momentary / It was unnecessary / Should’ve let it stay buried,” she sings of returning to the former flame. “Oh what a valiant roar / What a bland goodbye / The coward claimed he was a lion / I’m combing through the braids of lies / ‘I’ll never leave’ / ‘Nevermind.’”

In “Down Bad,” she sings about feeling “stranded” by the person she loves, and on “I Can Do It with a Broken Heart,” Swift tells the world how difficult it was to perform each night of the Eras Tour with a smile on her face despite her heartbreak.

Taylor Hill/FilmMagic, Samir Hussein/WireImage

On “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived,” Swift rips into a romantic partner for leading her on and making her believe they were in love, then leaving without a trace and ruining her summer.

“It wasn’t sexy once it wasn’t forbidden / I would’ve died for your sins / Instead I just died inside,” she sings. “And you deserve prison but you won’t get time / You’ll slide into inboxes and slip through the bars / You crashed my party and your rental car / You said normal girls were ‘boring’ / But you were gone by the morning.”

The song makes references to a man in a “Jehovah’s Witness suit” who “tried to buy some pills from a friend of friends of mine”; while on tour with The 1975, Healy wears a suit onstage, and he’s also been open about his past struggles with substance abuse. Healy has said in interviews that he went to rehab to treat a heroin addiction in 2017 .

On “The Alchemy,” Swift seemingly makes reference to those past struggles with the lyrics, “He jokes that it’s heroin / But this time with an ‘e.’”

At 2 a.m. on Friday, Swift revealed to fans that she had a surprise up her sleeve: Tortured Poets was actually a double album , and she had an additional batch of unannounced songs at the ready.

Just as in the first half of the album, the second half contains a slew of what appear to be references to Healy and their relationship.

On “Chloe or Sam or Sophie or Marcus,” Swift sings about how “the decade would play us for fools,” which could be a reference to the nearly 10 years in between when she and Healy first met and when they eventually got together.

She then sings about the song’s subject seeing her “out with somebody new who seemed like he would’ve bullied you in school,” a possible reference to Kelce’s athletic abilities.

Kevin Winter/Getty Images for TAS Rights Management

The line “You needed me, but you needed drugs more” also appears to be a nod at Healy’s struggles with substance abuse.

Later, she sings, “So if I sell my apartment/And you have kids with some internet starlet/Will that make your memory fade from this scarlet maroon?” The lines could be a reference to Healy’s girlfriend Gabbriette Bechtel , a model with a large social media following, while the second half seemingly serves as confirmation that Swift’s Midnights track “Maroon” is also about Healy.

On the song “How Did It End,” Swift addresses the sudden, not exactly amicable demise of a relationship, and sings about how she and her beau “were blind to unforeseen circumstances” and “fell victim to interloper’s glances,” a possible nod to the critics of her relationship with Healy.

Then on “Peter,” she makes a clear reference to the famous character Peter Pan, a boy who can never grow up. The song seems to be about someone the narrator met when she was young who said he’d grow up and “come find” her so they could be together.

Healy has referred to himself as a Peter Pan type multiple times, telling ShortList in 2020 he was “slightly Peter Pan-ish,” and describing himself in a 2016 interview as “a sort of emo Peter Pan self-lacerating Pied Piper kind of character.”

Swift also sings about the object of her affections being 25 years old at the time they were first together, and Healy was 25 in 2014, when they first met.

There’s been speculation for years that Swift’s Folklore song “Cardigan” is possibly about Healy, and last year, during their brief romance, fans believe she mouthed a sweet message to him onstage in Nashville while performing the song.

"This is about you. You know who you are. I love you,” she appeared to mouth during “Cardigan,” which contains the line, “Tried to change the ending/Peter losing Wendy” — a hint that both “Cardigan” and “Peter” are about the same subject. 

In June, a source told PEOPLE that Swift and Healy were “no longer romantically involved,” and that while their relationship was “a good time,” it “ran its course.” Swift started dating Kelce in the summer of 2023, while Healy has been dating Bechtel since September.

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Key findings about online dating in the U.S.

Online dating in the United States has evolved over the past several decades into a booming industry , transforming the way some people meet matches . A new report from Pew Research Center explores the upsides and downsides of online dating by highlighting Americans’ experiences and views about it. Here are 12 key takeaways.

Pew Research Center conducted this study to understand Americans’ experiences with dating sites and apps and their views of online dating generally. This analysis is based on a survey conducted among 6,034 U.S. adults from July 5-17, 2022. This included 4,996 respondents from the Center’s American Trends Panel (ATP), an online survey panel that is recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses. This way nearly all U.S. adults have a chance of selection. It also included an oversample of 1,038 respondents from Ipsos’ KnowledgePanel who indicated that they are lesbian, gay or bisexual (LGB), with oversampled groups weighted back to reflect proportions in the population. The survey is weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education and other categories. Read more about the ATP’s methodology .

Here are the questions used for this analysis, along with responses, and its methodology .

Terminology

• Online dating users refers to the 30% of Americans who answered yes to the following question: “Have you ever used an online dating site or dating app?”
• Current or recent online dating users refers to the 9% of adults who had used a dating site or app in the past year as of the July survey.
• Partnered refers to the 69% of U.S. adults who describe themselves as married, living with a partner, or in a committed romantic relationship.
• LGB refers to those who are lesbian, gay or bisexual. These groups are combined because of small sample sizes. Additionally, since this research is focused on sexual orientation, not gender identity, and due to the fact that the transgender population in the U.S. is very small, transgender respondents are not identified separately. Read the report for more details.

A note about the Asian adult sample

This survey includes a total sample size of 234 Asian adults. The sample primarily includes English-speaking Asian adults and therefore may not be representative of the overall Asian adult population. Despite this limitation, it is important to report the views of Asian adults on the topics in this study. As always, Asian adults’ responses are incorporated into the general population figures throughout this report. Asian adults are shown as a separate group when the question was asked of the full sample. Because of the relatively small sample size and a reduction in precision due to weighting, results are not shown separately for Asian adults for questions that were only asked of online dating users or other filtered questions. We are also not able to analyze Asian adults by demographic categories, such as gender, age or education.

Three-in-ten U.S. adults say they have ever used a dating site or app, identical to the share who said this in 2019 . That includes 9% who report doing so in the past year, according to the Center’s survey of 6,034 adults conducted July 5-17, 2022.

Online dating is more common among younger adults than among older people. About half of those under 30 (53%) report having ever used a dating site or app, compared with 37% of those ages 30 to 49, 20% of those 50 to 64 and 13% of those 65 and older.

When looking at sexual orientation, lesbian, gay or bisexual (LGB) adults are more likely than their straight counterparts to say they have ever used a dating site or app (51% vs. 28%).

Men are somewhat more likely than women to have tried online dating (34% vs. 27%), as are those with at least some college education when compared with those with a high school education or less.

Adults who have never been married are much more likely than married adults to report having used online dating sites or apps (52% vs. 16%). Adults who are currently living with a partner (46%) or who are divorced, separated or widowed (36%) are also more likely to have tried online dating than married adults.

There are no statistically significant differences in the shares of adults who report ever using an online dating platform by race or ethnicity: Similar shares of White, Black, Hispanic and Asian adults report ever having done so.

Tinder tops the list of dating sites or apps the survey studied and is particularly popular among adults under 30. Some 46% of online dating users say they have ever used Tinder, followed by about three-in-ten who have used Match (31%) or Bumble (28%). OkCupid, eharmony and Hinge are each used by about a fifth of online dating users. Grindr and HER are used by very few online dating users overall (6% and 3%, respectively) but are more widely used by LGB adults than straight adults. Additionally, 31% of online dating users mention having tried some other online dating platform not asked about directly in this survey. (Read the topline  for a list of the most common other dating sites and apps users mentioned.)

Tinder use is far more common among younger adults than among older Americans: 79% of online dating users under 30 say they have used the platform, compared with 44% of users ages 30 to 49, 17% of users 50 to 64 and just 1% of those 65 and older. Tinder is the top online dating platform among users under 50. By contrast, users 50 and older are about five times more likely to use Match than Tinder (50% vs. 11%).

One-in-ten partnered adults – meaning those who are married, living with a partner or in a committed romantic relationship – met their current significant other through a dating site or app. Partnered adults who are under 30 or who are LGB stand out from other groups when looking at this measure of online dating “success”: One-in-five partnered adults under 30 say they met their current spouse or partner on a dating site or app, as do about a quarter of partnered LGB adults (24%).

Online dating users are somewhat divided over whether their experiences on these platforms have been positive or negative. Among those who have ever used a dating site or app, slightly more say their personal experiences have been very or somewhat positive than say they have been very or somewhat negative (53% vs. 46%).

Some demographic groups are more likely to report positive experiences. For example, 57% of men who have dated online say their experiences have been positive, while women users are roughly split down the middle (48% positive, 51% negative). In addition, LGB users of these platforms are more likely than straight users to report positive experiences (61% vs. 53%).

Roughly a third of online dating users (35%) say they have ever paid to use one of these platforms – including for extra features – but this varies by income, age and gender. Some 45% of online dating users with upper incomes report having paid to use a dating site or app, compared with 36% of users with middle incomes and 28% of those with lower incomes. Similarly, 41% of users 30 and older say they have paid to use these platforms, compared with 22% of those under 30. Men who have dated online are more likely than women to report having paid for these sites and apps (41% vs. 29%).

Those who have ever paid to use dating sites or apps report more positive experiences than those who have never paid. Around six-in-ten paid users (58%) say their personal experiences with dating sites or apps have been positive; half of users who have never paid say this.

Women who have used online dating platforms in the past year are more likely to feel overwhelmed by the number of messages they get, while men are more likely to feel insecure about a lack of messages. Among current or recent online dating users, 54% of women say they have felt overwhelmed by the number of messages they received on dating sites or apps in the past year, while just a quarter of men say the same. By contrast, 64% of men say they have felt insecure because of the lack of messages they received, while four-in-ten women say the same.

Overall, 55% of adults who have used a dating app or site in the past year say they often or sometimes felt insecure about the number of messages they received, while 36% say they often or sometimes felt overwhelmed.

Among recent online daters, large majorities of men and women say they have often or sometimes felt excited by the people they have seen while using these platforms, though large majorities also say they have often or sometimes felt disappointed.

When asked why they’ve turned to dating sites or apps in the past year, 44% of users say a major reason was to meet a long-term partner and 40% say a major reason was to date casually. Smaller shares say a major reason was to have casual sex (24%) or make new friends (22%).

Men who have used a dating platform in the past year are much more likely than women to say casual sex was a major reason (31% vs. 13%). There are no statistically significant gender differences on the other three reasons asked about in the survey.

About four-in-ten U.S. adults overall (42%) say online dating has made the search for a long-term partner easier. Far fewer (22%) say it has made the search for a long-term partner or spouse harder. About a third (32%) say it has made no difference.

Adults under 30 are less convinced than their older counterparts that online dating has made the search for a partner easier. These younger adults are about evenly divided in their views, with 35% of those ages 18 to 29 saying it has made the search easier and 33% saying it has made the search harder.

When it comes to the choices people have on dating sites and apps, 43% of adults overall say people have the right amount of options for dating on these platforms, while 37% think choices are too plentiful. Fewer (13%) say there are not enough options.

Most U.S. adults are skeptical or unsure that dating algorithms can predict love. About one-in-five adults (21%) think that the types of computer programs that dating sites and apps use could determine whether two people will eventually fall in love. But greater shares of Americans either say these programs could not do this (35%) or are unsure (43%).

Americans are split on whether online dating is a safe way to meet people, and a majority support requiring background checks before someone can create a profile. The share of U.S. adults who say online dating is generally a very or somewhat safe way to meet people has dipped slightly since 2019, from 53% to 48%. Women are more likely than men to say online dating is not too or not at all safe.

There are also differences by age: 62% of Americans ages 65 and older say online dating is not safe, compared with 53% of those 50 to 64 and 42% of adults younger than 50. Those who have never used a dating site or app are particularly likely to think it is unsafe: 57% say this, compared with 32% of those who have used an online dating site or app.

At the same time, six-in-ten Americans say companies should require background checks before someone creates a dating profile, while 15% say they should not and 24% are not sure. Women are more likely than men to say these checks should be required, as are adults 50 and older compared with younger adults.

These checks do not have majority support among online dating users themselves, however: 47% of users say companies should require background checks, versus 65% of those who have never used a dating site or app.

Younger women who have used dating sites or apps stand out for experiencing unwanted behaviors on these platforms. A majority of women under 50 who have used dating sites or apps (56%) say they have been sent a sexually explicit message or image they didn’t ask for, and about four-in-ten have had someone continue to contact them after they said they were not interested (43%) or have been called an offensive name (37%). Roughly one-in-ten of this group (11%) have received threats of physical harm. Each of these experiences is less common among women online dating users ages 50 and older, as well as among men of any age.

Among all online dating users, 38% have ever received unsolicited sexually explicit messages or images while using a dating site or app; 30% have experienced continued unwanted contact; 24% have been called an offensive name; and 6% have been threatened with physical harm.

About half of those who have used dating sites and apps (52%) say they have come across someone they think was trying to scam them. Men under 50 are particularly likely to say they have had this experience: 63% of men in this age group who have used dating sites or apps think they have encountered a scammer on them. Smaller shares of men ages 50 and older (47%) and women of any age (44%) say the same.

Note: Here are the questions used for this analysis, along with responses, and its methodology .

• Online Dating
• Romance & Dating

Emily A. Vogels is a former research associate focusing on internet and technology at Pew Research Center

Colleen McClain is a research associate focusing on internet and technology research at Pew Research Center

For Valentine’s Day, facts about marriage and dating in the U.S.

Dating at 50 and up: older americans’ experiences with online dating, about half of lesbian, gay and bisexual adults have used online dating, about half of never-married americans have used an online dating site or app, from looking for love to swiping the field: online dating in the u.s., most popular.

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Events See all →

Earth week 2024.

This is a campuswide week of events, lectures, and volunteer opportunities designed to educate and inspire action related to environmental justice, climate, and nature-based solutions. This year’s theme is Restore & Regenerate.

Various locations

Excellence in Graduate Teaching Reception

5:00 p.m. - 6:30 p.m.

Penn Graduate Student Center, 3615 Locust Walk

1:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.

College Green

Maggie Nelson

6:30 p.m. - 10:00 a.m.

Kelly Writers House, 3805 Locust Walk

Arts, Humanities, & Social Sciences

Gearing up for research on aging

Gear up, an initiative offered by the population aging research center and the leonard davis institute, gives students from underrepresented and disadvantaged backgrounds hands-on experience and mentoring to address a global challenge..

“If you think about major societal challenges, a number are very predictable,” says Hans-Peter Kohler , Frederick J. Warren Professor of Demography and professor of sociology in the School of Arts & Sciences . “One of them is climate change. Another is population aging; this is a major domestic and global challenge.”

A worldwide increase in life expectancy and decrease in fertility rates led the World Health Organization to predict in 2022 that the proportion of the world’s population over 60 years old will nearly double between 2015 and 2050, from 12 to 22 percent. Related difficulties include providing health and long-term care needs, finding treatments for cognitive diseases like Alzheimer’s, and addressing health disparities in aging.

Yet studying or researching population aging is not part of the curriculum available to most college undergraduates, says Kohler.

He and colleagues Norma B. Coe and Rachel M. Werner of the Perelman School of Medicine responded by creating the Get Experience in Aging Research Undergraduate Program, or GEAR UP. The initiative is run by the Population Aging Research Center (PARC), which Kohler and Coe co-direct, and the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics , led by Werner. Established in the spring of 2022 with funding from the National Institute on Aging, GEAR UP supports research in STEM areas related to population aging by undergraduate students from underrepresented and disadvantaged backgrounds attending colleges across the country.

GEAR UP’s first cohort had eight students, six of whom were from Penn. This year there are 13 students from nine schools, including five from Penn. They are working on research ranging from the availability and effectiveness of care to health disparities and caregivers’ needs. The program is 15 months long, including two summers and the academic year between. It introduces students to researchers and topics, connects them with mentors to work on research initiatives, and provides workshops and social events.

“It’s an opportunity to prep and get help, make sure people with different skills get on the same page,” says Arturo Bardales, who is in the second cohort of GEAR UP fellows. Other events let students learn about each other’s research or just socialize. “We go out to eat as a group, we went to a conference in Seattle,” he says. “It was definitely a bonding experience.”

Read more at OMNIA.

Picturing artistic pursuits

Campus & Community

Penn celebrates operation and benefits of largest solar power project in Pennsylvania

Solar production has begun at the Great Cove I and II facilities in central Pennsylvania, the equivalent of powering 70% of the electricity demand from Penn’s academic campus and health system in the Philadelphia area.

Education, Business, & Law

Investing in future teachers and educational leaders

The Empowerment Through Education Scholarship Program at Penn’s Graduate School of Education is helping to prepare and retain teachers and educational leaders.

‘The Illuminated Body’ fuses color, light, and sound

A new Arthur Ross Gallery exhibition of work by artist Barbara Earl Thomas features cut-paper portraits reminiscent of stained glass and an immersive installation constructed with intricately cut material lit from behind.

25 years of ‘LOVE’

The iconic sculpture by pop artist Robert Indiana arrived on campus in 1999 and soon became a natural place to come together.

Sophia Bush pens open letter to address homewrecker rumors, Ashlyn Harris relationship

Sophia Bush is addressing her sexuality and infidelity rumors for the first time.

The "One Tree Hill" alum, 41, filed for divorce from entrepreneur Grant Hughes in August after a year of marriage. A month later, retired American soccer player Ashlyn Harris filed for divorce from her former teammate Ali Krieger. Shortly after Bush and Harris' divorce's became public, People reported in October that the two were dating.

In a personal essay written for Glamour , Bush explained the slow lead up and "painful conversations" that took place before she and Harris pursued a relationship. Social media, however, viewed their love as an affair.

"The online rumor mill began to spit in the ugliest ways. There were blatant lies. Violent threats. There were accusations of being a home-wrecker," she wrote. "The ones who said I’d left my ex because I suddenly realized I wanted to be with women — my partners have known what I’m into for as long as I have."

She added: "The idea that I left my marriage based on some hysterical rendezvous — that, to be crystal-clear, never happened — rather than having taken over a year to do the most soul crushing work of my life? Rather than realizing I had to be the most vulnerable I’ve ever been, on a public stage, despite being terrified to my core? It feels brutal."

Sophia Bush, Ashlyn Harris relationship: How it began

Bush, who met Harris in 2019, said she bonded with the soccer star after she and a group of women attended an event in Cannes during the summer of 2023. At the time, she and Hughes were "separated and preparing to file for divorce" and she met other women at the event going through relationship issues. They had formed a support group for other women in break ups and divorcees.

"It was tragic and hard. But it was also beautiful. There were moments of incredible sadness because no one signs up to get married thinking it’ll end. The days when we knew people needed to laugh, we sent inspirational memes and silly TikToks. We read books written by great therapists and shared emo quotes from poets," Bush recalled.

The actress said she "didn’t expect to find love in this support system" and she felt like her feelings for Harris developed slowly and simultaneous overnight. "And I think it’s very easy not to see something that’s been in front of your face for a long time when you’d never looked at it as an option and you had never been looked at as an option."

After "countless sessions of therapy" and some coaxing from friends, Bush said she finally asked the soccer pro to hang out as more than friends. The dinner date was "truly one of the most surreal experiences of my life thus far," she wrote.

The "Good Sam" star and producer said she had always felt connected to the queer community despite not publicly declaring she was a part of it. "I sort of hate the notion of having to come out in 2024," she wrote, although acknowledging visibility helps "in a year when we’re seeing the most aggressive attacks on the LGBTQIA+ community in modern history."

"There were more than 500 anti-LGBTQIA+ bills  proposed in state legislatures in 2023, so for that reason I want to give the act of coming out the respect and honor it deserves," she continued. "I’ve experienced so much safety, respect, and love in the queer community, as an ally all of my life, that, as I came into myself, I already felt it was my home. I think I’ve always known that my sexuality exists on a spectrum."

Coming out isn’t actually over. Here’s why.

As far as the exact label, Bush said, "I think the word that best defines it is queer. I can’t say it without smiling, actually. And that feels pretty great.

"I have real joy. It took me 41 years to get here. And while I marvel at it, I will also make space for people’s pain," she continued, paying respect to victims of "bullying and harassment and being outed without consent."

Related: Is all the anger, fury really about transgender rights? Maybe not.

Sofia Bush says she 'threw up' after posting about her 1-year-wedding anniversary

Bush also discussed the unraveling of her marriage, which she said she realized before their nuptials.

"In April of 2022 I was close to calling off my wedding. Instead of running away, I doubled down on being a model wife," she wrote. "In 2023 my now ex-husband posted a lovely tribute to our first anniversary on Instagram. When I saw it, I felt the blood drain from my face. … I felt nothing."

Bush said she pushed through their relationship issues because of the reiterated comments that "marriage is hard" and due to public pressure, she posted about their anniversary.

"I typed something about how incredibly happy I was and tried to drown out the familiar voice in my head. 'Make it look easy. Make it look perfect. If your smile is shiny enough, maybe no one will notice that up close all of your teeth are broken,'" she recalled. "I hit post. And then I walked into the bathroom and threw up."

Selena Gomez’s Boyfriend Benny Blanco Recalls the Moment He Fell ‘in Love’ With Her

Benny revealed the moment he realized he was 'in love' with Selena, whom he was friends with before they started dating.

Benny Blanco has become the Internet’s favorite boyfriend. Ever since Selena Gomez revealed they were together in December 2023, the music producer, 36, found himself at the center of attention among her fans. Now that they’ve been together for nearly a full year, Benny recalled the moment he realized that he was “in love” with the Wizards of Waverly Place star, 31.

“I was the last one to know,” he told WSJ Magazine in an interview that was published on Thursday, April 25. “It’s crazy how your partner could just be sitting there the whole time, right in front of your eyes, and you don’t even notice, and then you have that Clueless moment where you’re like, ‘Wait, I’m in love.’”

Elsewhere in his interview, Benny discussed his other passion aside from music: cooking. In fact, this is one of his and Selena’s favorite pastimes, he mentioned earlier this year.

Selena and Benny had worked together for several years. He was listed as a collaborator on her album Revival , specifically for her hit song “Same Old Love.” Not only that, but the two also appeared together in Benny’s 2019 music video for “I Can’t Get Enough.” Nevertheless, neither of them caught feelings until later in their collaborative relationship. They officially began dating in June 2023 but kept their romance quiet for several months.

After going public with their relationship late last year, Selena and Benny have given fans small glimpses into their life together. They attended the January 2024 Golden Globe Awards, and the Only Murders in the Building star has shared multiple pictures of their sweetest moments to social media.

Most recently, Selena shared her and Benny’s best PDA-filled moments in an Instagram carousel post in honor of her boyfriend’s birthday. From funny polaroids to countless kisses, the Rare Beauty founder included as much romance content as possible for the tribute.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Selena Gomez (@selenagomez)

“Happy birthday, baby!” Selena wrote in March. “Your emotional endurance, positive disposition, unbelievable talent (that blows me away), undeniable humor and loving, kind heart absolutely kill me. I love you.”

Despite sharing some of their relationship with the public, Selena has made sure to protect her and Benny’s privacy. After releasing her latest single, “Love On” in February, Apple Music’s Zane Lowe asked about her love life.

“I think it’s just really important to meet someone that respects you,” she explained. “And I think it’s really nice to also lean on someone who understands the world that I live in. But I’d have to say overall it’s the safest that I feel, and it’s been really lovely, and I’ve only grown through it, so it’s awesome.”