Brainy Dose Presents: 17 Interesting Facts About Love
When you think about love, you may picture picnics in the park,
holding hands and watching the sunset, and living happily ever after.
We all have expectations when it comes to others and love itself. You may even have a
list of things your soul mate should embody. Indeed, love occupies a special place not
only in the human heart but in our minds, our history, and our society.
Let’s have a look at some interesting facts about love!
Number 1 - Butterflies In The Stomach Are A Real, Stress-Related Thing
Of course, it’s not actual butterflies, rather your autonomic nervous system.
Anxiety and fear trigger what’s called your ‘fight or flight response’ - an
evolutionary holdover from our more primitive days when we would need to run from a predator.
Maybe unsurprisingly, love triggers a great deal of these same feelings too.
Putting your heart on the line is dangerous, which is why looking at someone you’re falling
for makes your adrenaline spike, sets your heart pounding and blood rushing from your gut,
triggering a floating and fluttering sensation.
Number 2 - Love And Lust Activate Different Regions In The Brain
Researchers say that lust and love involve different intentions, goals, and interests.
By imaging the brain, scientists have found that we can differentiate between activated
regions of the brain responsible for love and lust. The study found that love and
lust activate different areas of the striatum. Lust activates the same area that is usually
activated by pleasure - such as sex or food; love activates the same part that’s associated
with reward - which happens to be the same region that is associated with drug addiction.
Number 3 - You Go Through Withdrawal Symptoms
Similar to going through withdrawal when you quit a substance, when you’re
separated from the one you love, your body releases Corticoliberin - a peptide hormone
released during a stress response - which causes you to feel anxious and depressed.
This is why love can be addictive. When you’re not having the addiction satisfied,
you can go through withdrawal. Only being with the one you love can satisfy this internal turmoil.
Number 4 - People At The Same Level Of Attractiveness Are More Likely To End Up Together
A great deal of psychological and social research suggests that there is a significant pattern when
it comes to establishing romantic relationships. This pattern is explained by the Matching
Hypothesis - which states that people are more attracted to those that they share the
same level of attractiveness with. In other words, they are equally socially desirable.
And even if one member of a couple is not as attractive as the other physically, they
tend to make up for it with qualities that others crave socially - like kindness and intelligence.
Number 5 - Love Makes You Taste Things Differently
Does food taste much sweeter to you when you’re in love? It may not just be your imagination.
In one study that supported this notion, one group of subjects were asked to write
down their thoughts on love. The other group was asked to write about jealousy,
and then both groups were directed to eat gummies and bitter chocolate.
The former group, the one that wrote about love, rated the foods as sweeter
than the one who wrote about jealousy. In a similar experiment, participants
were asked to write about love and jealousy again, but they were given water instead of
candy. Once again, the group that described love, said that their water tasted sweet.
Number 6 - Love Makes You Lose Your Focus
Love can make you less productive. While being lovesick hasn’t resulted
in any specific diagnosis, scientific studies show that being in love makes focus falter.
Being in passionate love seems to lead to less efficiency in individual performance.
In short, continually having someone on your mind makes you lose the ability to focus.
Number 7 - When You Stare Into Your Lover’s Eyes, It Causes Your Heartbeats To Sync
It’s not a hard and fast rule, but if you share a long glance with your partner, it can happen.
Researchers found that lovers who stared into one another’s eyes for a full three
minutes had nearly the same heart rates. The exact reason for this is unclear,
but it could be due to sharing such a deep physical and emotional connection with someone.
Number 8 - Kissing Can Help You Choose The Right Partner
Kissing is a long-standing way to show your partner you care, but it can also help you
find the right partner in the first place. Studies find that kissing can be a deciding
factor when it comes to people choosing a partner. Men and women measure compatibility
a great deal by how their partners kiss. Furthermore, the frequency of kissing is
associated with the overall quality of the relationship.
Number 9 - Thinking Of Love And Sex Influences Creativity And Concrete Thinking
Researchers conducted a study based on the Construal Level Theory - which describes the
relationship between psychological distance and people’s thinking,
whether it be abstract or concrete. They found that reminders of love,
reinforce more abstract thought and creativity because they are more abstract concepts:
the future, devotion, commitment, and intimacy. Reminders of sex, on the other hand,
trigger concrete thinking. It makes a person think about the here and now,
the ‘day-to-day’ details rather than long term goals and ideas.
Number 10 - Men Fall In Love Faster Than Women
While women are often perceived to fall in love faster than their male counterparts,
one study has found that actually, men tend to fall in love more quickly than women.
Moreover, men tend to say, “I love you” first in a relationship.
Though they don’t know for sure why this is,
it could be because women are more reluctant to admit love due to being more wary of heartbreak.
Number 11 - Love Can Reduce Your Pain
Love can take away your pain, and not just the emotional kind.
When people are in love, their lives and moods change,
and so does how they feel and undergo pain. Strong feelings of passionate love can relieve
physical pain, akin to that of taking a painkiller. Of course, this doesn’t mean
that being in love will make you impervious to pain, but it’s interesting to take into account.
Number 12 - Love Also Has Healing Powers
They say that time and love can heal all wounds, and they may be right. Research
has shown that there is a link between stress and how fast wounds take to heal.
A study was conducted with 42 married couples between the ages
of 22 and 77. It showed that wound healing is slower in couples with rocky marriages.
Hostility between couples has also been shown to slow recuperation when it comes to wounds.
Number 13 - A Loving Relationship Means A Healthy Heart
Being in a healthy relationship or marriage has its benefits.
A study conducted on 3.5 million people showed that married couples have lower
rates of cardiovascular diseases, compared to singles and those who are divorced or widowed.
People who are less than 50 years of age and married can enjoy a 12% drop
in the odds of having a cardiovascular disease.
Number 14 - There Are Five Different Love Languages
Love languages describe the different ways that people feel and show love. This can
be in the form of service, word of affirmation, physical touch, quality time, and giving gifts.
Discovering your partner’s love language will help you appreciate them better.
Knowing your partner’s love language means that you understand what is most important to them,
and it’s the best way to let them know that you love them.
Number 15 - Couples Who Are Too Similar To Each Other Are Not Likely To Last
Couples who are too similar may not always be the best match. In fact, any kind of extreme
in a relationship is to its detriment. Whether it be too many similarities or too many differences.
Research shows that its best to have a foundation of similarities, but differences are important,
too. This way, couples can do things separately, and they can also learn from one another.
Number 16 - Long-Term Commitment And Memory Have A Strong Connection
How much do you remember about your relationship? All the details? How it
progressed, and what significant steps you both took to get to where you are?
According to studies, happy and committed couples will often remember the timelines
and important milestones of their relationship.
Couples in more strained relationships however, do not remember them as accurately. They
actually choose to remember things wrong - to avoid disappointment.
Number 17 - Love Is Blind
Now that we’ve talked about several societal and physiological factors when it comes to love,
it’s time to discuss the most debated and cliché quote of all: “love is blind.”
Meaning, in your eyes, your partner always seems perfect. No matter what others say about them,
you will always look past your partner’s imperfections and flaws.
Love is indeed blind, and it’s an essential and advantageous thing
to have in a relationship. It helps couples move to the commitment stage.
The science of love is both simple and complex. It is a fascinating subject and
is sure to surprise and excite us all. That said, research on the subject of
love is often sensationalized. It can be challenging to make a solid,
scientifically supported conclusion about all of the many facets of love.
Nevertheless, how committed, long-lasting, loving, and deep your relationship is,
still depends on your own choices. What do you think? Do you know any
other interesting facts about love? Feel free to add them in the comments section.
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