In This Feature
Valentine's Day: Love on the Brain
by findingDulcinea Staff
Love: the mysterious, ancient phenomenon that strikes nearly everyone, whether we want it to or not. In the past couple of decades, researchers have picked up the topic usually left to Lord Byron and Shakespeare, enlightening us with case studies and breakthroughs that help explain this strange, unavoidable compulsion to devote oneself to another.
Chemistry, Real and Engineered
Our fascination with finding love, keeping love and figuring out whether a “soul mate” actually exists has yielded a wealth of studies on the topic, and in the process has helped us find out more about the brain and the body.
NBC’s summer 2007 show “The Science of Love,” took advantage of our collective fascination with reality dating shows and dating Web sites to promote a new matchmaking site, PerfectMatch.com. The show asked whether compatibility, measured by the dozens of factors that sites like eHarmony and Match.com use, is actually the ideal way to find a mate, or whether a random, impulsive choice leads just as often to wedded bliss. The male contestant on the show actually did pick the woman who had been scientifically chosen for him, suggesting that love and a scientific method can be happily wedded.
Then there's Chemistry.com, whose advisor is Dr. Helen Fisher, author of the books "Why We Love" and her latest, "Why Him? Why Her?" Fisher comes at love from a biological anthropologist's background. In her 2008 lecture "The science of love, and the future of women," delivered at the TED Conference, Fisher talks about love's "biochemical foundations and its social importance" and "closes with a warning about the potential disaster inherent in antidepressant abuse."
NBC’s summer 2007 show “The Science of Love,” took advantage of our collective fascination with reality dating shows and dating Web sites to promote a new matchmaking site, PerfectMatch.com. The show asked whether compatibility, measured by the dozens of factors that sites like eHarmony and Match.com use, is actually the ideal way to find a mate, or whether a random, impulsive choice leads just as often to wedded bliss. The male contestant on the show actually did pick the woman who had been scientifically chosen for him, suggesting that love and a scientific method can be happily wedded.
Then there's Chemistry.com, whose advisor is Dr. Helen Fisher, author of the books "Why We Love" and her latest, "Why Him? Why Her?" Fisher comes at love from a biological anthropologist's background. In her 2008 lecture "The science of love, and the future of women," delivered at the TED Conference, Fisher talks about love's "biochemical foundations and its social importance" and "closes with a warning about the potential disaster inherent in antidepressant abuse."
And can love, once found, last forever? Recent statistics on the U.S. divorce rate might indicate that it doesn’t. And a study by Italy’s University of Pavia seconded that emotion, finding that romantic love—the most intense period of a relationship—lasts just one year, on average.
Face Time and the Battle of the Sexes
Attraction has its source in brain chemistry, which determines your preferences when seeking love. The BBC’s Science and Nature section on the human body includes a “Face Perception” test you can take yourself. The test takes into account the chief qualities that emerge as priorities—consciously or subconsciously—when choosing a mate: extroversion and introversion.
For decades, psychologists have attempted to organize and classify humans according to personality type, and extroversion and introversion are often the first sieve through which all people pass. Some scientists also believe that whether one “thinks like a man” or “thinks like a woman” must be considered in the context of love. Possessing one of these mindsets more than the other can dramatically affect romantic relationships. Take this BBC quiz to find out to which sex your brain most corresponds.
For decades, psychologists have attempted to organize and classify humans according to personality type, and extroversion and introversion are often the first sieve through which all people pass. Some scientists also believe that whether one “thinks like a man” or “thinks like a woman” must be considered in the context of love. Possessing one of these mindsets more than the other can dramatically affect romantic relationships. Take this BBC quiz to find out to which sex your brain most corresponds.
Unwedded Bliss?
Of course, not everyone is currently involved in a torrid romance. So what are the rest of us doing? A 2006 study by Pew Internet & American Life Project found out some interesting facts about Americans in and out of love. An article about the survey, “Not Looking for Love,” explores data from a substantial number of unmarried people who say that they are “not in a committed relationship” and “not looking for a partner.” Surprising? Read the full study at the Pew site.
We delved deeper into this trend last summer with the article "Fewer Wedding Bells Ring for Generation Y."
We delved deeper into this trend last summer with the article "Fewer Wedding Bells Ring for Generation Y."
Attached at the Hip
Once married, it's been argued, the closer the relationship is between husband and wife, the better. Inspired by a Buddhist couple from Arizona who haven't been more than 15 feet away from each other in 10 years, a pair of professional writers followed one another around (sometimes attached by a string) for one day. You can watch their experiment and learn what happened in our "Must-See Video" feature.
One tendency that endures in romance is idealizing your loved one. What role can putting one’s beloved on a pedestal play in relationships and marriage? Quite a big one. An article in the Sydney Morning Herald suggests that couples who idealize one another may have a better chance at a long-term relationship than those who don’t.
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