Interesting Facts About Love

10 Interesting Facts About Love

Love is pure, love is painful, love is sweet, and love is dreadful. True love is overwhelming. Our lives depend on it and it often seems like our planet would stop spinning if love didn’t exist. Endless love is something we strive for and something we mourn the loss of.

A lovesick panda once said this love quote “if you’ve never been hurt, you’re either very lucky or very lonely.”

We understand the poetry of the heart, but over the courses of our lives, we tend to demystify this precious feeling more and more. We learn about biological processes that cause specific reactions; we learn about cultural influences on how we behave and think about love; we learn about the psychological facts about love and physiological processes that get us falling in love for someone.

And as soon as we think there’s no more place for romance in a world explained by science, we fall in love, or simply look into the eyes of our beloved, and all of that knowledge is pushed to the back of our minds. In the end, the feeling itself is what matters most.

Let us present you with some interesting theories and love facts that will explain much about this all-absorbing phenomenon without dispelling its romance and poetry.

1. It only takes up to 4 minutes to decide whether you like someone or not

If you want to make a good impression on someone, you’ve only got about 4 minutes to do it. It is believed that it has far more to do with your body language, tone, and speed of your voice rather than exactly what you say.

2. Monogamous Relationships Exist Throughout The Animal Kingdom

Even though we often think of ourselves as a faithful species, we’re not the only one in the animal kingdom. Wolves, swans, gibbons, black vultures, albatrosses, and even termites are just a few of those animals that find a mate for a lifetime.

3. When Two Lovers Gaze At Each Others’ Eyes, Their Heart Rates Synchronize

Some extraordinary research has found that couples who are in love and bond in a romantic relationship synchronize their heart rates after gazing into each others’ eyes for three minutes.

4. Falling In Love Has Neurological Effects Similar To Those Of Cocaine

Falling in love is much like taking a dose of cocaine, as both experiences affect the brain similarly and trigger a similar sensation of euphoria. The research found that falling in love produces several euphoria-inducing chemicals that stimulate 12 areas of the brain at the same time.

5. Even Looking At A Picture Of A Loved One Relieves The Pain

Even though it was long known that the presence of a significant other has a lot to do with patients’ improvement, it has been proved that the same goes for even a picture of the beloved. The experiment showed that when experiencing pain, study participants exposed to pictures of their beloved and too distracting word games had their pain reduced far more than those exposed to the same distracting word games and pictures of acquaintances.

6. People At The Same Level Of Attractiveness Are More Likely To End Up Together

Many psychological and social research indicates that there is a significant pattern in how people choose people to establish romantic relationships with. This pattern is explained by the Matching Hypothesis, which says that people are more attracted to those that they share a level of attractiveness with, or, in other words, are equally socially desirable. Even if successful couples differ in physical attractiveness, one of them usually compensates for it with other socially desirable qualities.

7. Holding A Loved One’s Hand Relieves Pain And Stress

Research shows that long-term couples with deep, strong connections can successfully soothe each other in stressful situations or when one of them experiences pain simply by holding hands.

8. An Attractive Face Is Preferred Over An Attractive Body For Long-Term Relationships

There’s evidence that when looking for a fling, the body wins over the face on a physical attraction basis. The opposite is true, however, for those who are looking for a long-term relationship partner.

9. Butterflies In The Stomach Are Real And They’re Actually Caused by Adrenaline

When you fall for someone you probably won’t be able to avoid the butterflies flying, dancing and fooling around in your stomach. They’re caused by adrenaline, which floods your body during flight-or-fight response situations.

10. Thinking Of Love And Sex Influences Creativity And Concrete Thinking, Respectively

Research based on the construal level theory found out that reminder of love influence more abstract and creative thinking because they are associated with more distant and abstract considerations – long-term relationships, devotion, commitment, and intimacy. Reminders of sex trigger concrete thinking, making a person focus more on momentary details than on long-term plans or goals.