Who knew? 5 crazy love facts
Wait till you hear the fascinating facts scientists have uncovered about how and why we humans fall in love.
The secret to a romantic movie date is…
So it’s date night and you want to set the mood for romance…what’s the right plan to make? Interestingly, you should go to a movie, but not any old flick. If you want kisses after the credits roll, then a romantic chick flick should be your choice, according to a study by the University of Michigan published in the journalHormones and Behavior. Researchers reached this conclusion after testing the hormone levels of three different groups of men and women who were shown a variety of movies. One group watched a romantic scene from The Bridges of Madison County, a second viewed a violent portion of The Godfather: Part II, and a third was shown a documentary on the Amazon rainforest. While the viewers watching the rainforest footage experienced no hormonal changes, researchers found that The Bridges of Madison County caused a surge in both men’s and women’s levels of progesterone, a hormone that triggers the urge to cuddle. “Progesterone is known to have anxiety-reducing, soothing effects,” explains Oliver C. Schultheiss, associate professor of psychology at the University of Michigan and co-author of the study. In this way, progesterone can pave the way for romance and help couples bond, he says.
Should you wed the first person you fall for? No — and here’s why
How many people should you wine and dine before you can feel confident enough to say you’ve met your one and only? Believe it or not, mathematics has the answer: a dozen. “Check out and reject 12 people, then pick the next best that comes along, and you’re likely to have a very good match on your hands,” says Clio Cresswell, Ph.D., a mathematician and author of Mathematics and Sex. That’s because when it comes to decision-making, formulas reveal that your chances of picking the right answer improve as you expose yourself to more options. But there does come a point when you are over-researching: If you date and reject 30 or more potential mates, “you’ve probably met someone that you could possibly have been more than happy with, and passed them over,’ notes Cresswell.
Related: 20 unusual facts about relationships
The best time to bond as a couple is during the first few months
Many people agree with John Gray, Ph.D., author of the groundbreaking best-seller Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus: The Classic Guide to Understanding the Opposite Sex — men are from Mars, and women from Venus. However, a new study suggests that there is a brief time in our dating lives when men and women are pretty much from the same planet, and it’s when we first fall in love. For this, you can thank your hormones — which, researchers from the University of Pisa in Italy found out, fluctuate like mad when a new relationship blooms. According to the study published in the journal Psychoneuroendocrinology, when men become smitten with someone, they experience a drop in their body’s levels of testosterone, a hormone linked to aggressive and sometimes domineering behavior. Meanwhile, love-struck women also get a testosterone boost.
“Men, in some way, become more like women, and women become like men,” study researcher and co-author Donatella Marazziti explained. And there’s a very good reason for this hormonal gender-bending: We’re more likely to develop a rapport with someone who shares our own personality traits. This blissful, two-peas-in-a-pod feeling doesn’t last forever, though. When researchers tested the same subjects one year later, they found that both the men’s and women’s testosterone levels had diverged and returned to their pre-relationship levels.
Related: 5 tips for bonding with her better
How to tell the difference between lust and true love
If you’re swooning over your new sweetie, you may think you’re deeply in love. Friends, however, may warn that “You’re just in lust.” But who’s right? Researchers have found evidence that people can distinguish between true romance and plain old sexual attraction. For the study published in the Journal of Comparative Neurology, scientists performed fMRIs on men and women as they looked at photos of the person they were in love with and photos of acquaintances (including both attractive and less-attractive individuals). The results showed that the two sets of images affected the brain very differently: Photos of loved ones triggered more activity on the right side of the brain (an area associated with romantic emotions) than did the other photos, while pictures of extremely attractive people triggered more activity on the left side of the brain (a hotbed for human sexual urges) than did the photos of the study subjects’ beloveds.
Related: The truth about love and romantic chemistry
What this suggests, says study author Arthur Aron, Ph.D., professor of psychology at the State University of New York-Stony Brook, is that the emotions of love and lust are more distinct than we think, and that people can indeed discriminate between the two. Tell that to your cynical friends!
And your soul mate’s name is…
Would you choose a romantic partner because his or her name sounds like yours or because you share the same initials? Scoff all you like, but a study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychologysuggests that yes, people do exactly that when looking for a mate. When a team of researchers led by John T. Jones, Ph.D., of the United States Military Academy checked out marriage records stretching back to the 1800s, they found a significant number of couples in which the woman’s maiden name began with the same letter as the man’s surname. To further test their research, the team then conducted an experiment in which male college students were first asked to write about a flaw of theirs (we’ll explain why in a minute). Afterwards, they were asked to evaluate women’s personal ads in which the full first name and first three letters of their last names were listed. The test subjects, it turns out, were especially drawn to profiles in which the women’s names resembled their own.
Related: 6 essentials for your soul mate
Why, exactly, do matching monikers seem to prove so magnetic between romantic prospects? In a nutshell, it’s because people tend to have a positive association with their own names — and this need for familiarity increases when people are under stress or forced to dwell on their own personal shortcomings. “Especially when they’re anxious, people may gravitate toward self-relevant symbols,” Jones explained. “We think there’s something about these symbols that makes people feel more secure.” Added bonus: If you two can make things last for the long haul, you sure can save a lot of money on monogramming costs.
The secret to a romantic movie date is…
So it’s date night and you want to set the mood for romance…what’s the right plan to make? Interestingly, you should go to a movie, but not any old flick. If you want kisses after the credits roll, then a romantic chick flick should be your choice, according to a study by the University of Michigan published in the journalHormones and Behavior. Researchers reached this conclusion after testing the hormone levels of three different groups of men and women who were shown a variety of movies. One group watched a romantic scene from The Bridges of Madison County, a second viewed a violent portion of The Godfather: Part II, and a third was shown a documentary on the Amazon rainforest. While the viewers watching the rainforest footage experienced no hormonal changes, researchers found that The Bridges of Madison County caused a surge in both men’s and women’s levels of progesterone, a hormone that triggers the urge to cuddle. “Progesterone is known to have anxiety-reducing, soothing effects,” explains Oliver C. Schultheiss, associate professor of psychology at the University of Michigan and co-author of the study. In this way, progesterone can pave the way for romance and help couples bond, he says.
Should you wed the first person you fall for? No — and here’s why
How many people should you wine and dine before you can feel confident enough to say you’ve met your one and only? Believe it or not, mathematics has the answer: a dozen. “Check out and reject 12 people, then pick the next best that comes along, and you’re likely to have a very good match on your hands,” says Clio Cresswell, Ph.D., a mathematician and author of Mathematics and Sex. That’s because when it comes to decision-making, formulas reveal that your chances of picking the right answer improve as you expose yourself to more options. But there does come a point when you are over-researching: If you date and reject 30 or more potential mates, “you’ve probably met someone that you could possibly have been more than happy with, and passed them over,’ notes Cresswell.
Related: 20 unusual facts about relationships
The best time to bond as a couple is during the first few months
Many people agree with John Gray, Ph.D., author of the groundbreaking best-seller Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus: The Classic Guide to Understanding the Opposite Sex — men are from Mars, and women from Venus. However, a new study suggests that there is a brief time in our dating lives when men and women are pretty much from the same planet, and it’s when we first fall in love. For this, you can thank your hormones — which, researchers from the University of Pisa in Italy found out, fluctuate like mad when a new relationship blooms. According to the study published in the journal Psychoneuroendocrinology, when men become smitten with someone, they experience a drop in their body’s levels of testosterone, a hormone linked to aggressive and sometimes domineering behavior. Meanwhile, love-struck women also get a testosterone boost.
“Men, in some way, become more like women, and women become like men,” study researcher and co-author Donatella Marazziti explained. And there’s a very good reason for this hormonal gender-bending: We’re more likely to develop a rapport with someone who shares our own personality traits. This blissful, two-peas-in-a-pod feeling doesn’t last forever, though. When researchers tested the same subjects one year later, they found that both the men’s and women’s testosterone levels had diverged and returned to their pre-relationship levels.
Related: 5 tips for bonding with her better
How to tell the difference between lust and true love
If you’re swooning over your new sweetie, you may think you’re deeply in love. Friends, however, may warn that “You’re just in lust.” But who’s right? Researchers have found evidence that people can distinguish between true romance and plain old sexual attraction. For the study published in the Journal of Comparative Neurology, scientists performed fMRIs on men and women as they looked at photos of the person they were in love with and photos of acquaintances (including both attractive and less-attractive individuals). The results showed that the two sets of images affected the brain very differently: Photos of loved ones triggered more activity on the right side of the brain (an area associated with romantic emotions) than did the other photos, while pictures of extremely attractive people triggered more activity on the left side of the brain (a hotbed for human sexual urges) than did the photos of the study subjects’ beloveds.
Related: The truth about love and romantic chemistry
What this suggests, says study author Arthur Aron, Ph.D., professor of psychology at the State University of New York-Stony Brook, is that the emotions of love and lust are more distinct than we think, and that people can indeed discriminate between the two. Tell that to your cynical friends!
And your soul mate’s name is…
Would you choose a romantic partner because his or her name sounds like yours or because you share the same initials? Scoff all you like, but a study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychologysuggests that yes, people do exactly that when looking for a mate. When a team of researchers led by John T. Jones, Ph.D., of the United States Military Academy checked out marriage records stretching back to the 1800s, they found a significant number of couples in which the woman’s maiden name began with the same letter as the man’s surname. To further test their research, the team then conducted an experiment in which male college students were first asked to write about a flaw of theirs (we’ll explain why in a minute). Afterwards, they were asked to evaluate women’s personal ads in which the full first name and first three letters of their last names were listed. The test subjects, it turns out, were especially drawn to profiles in which the women’s names resembled their own.
Related: 6 essentials for your soul mate
Why, exactly, do matching monikers seem to prove so magnetic between romantic prospects? In a nutshell, it’s because people tend to have a positive association with their own names — and this need for familiarity increases when people are under stress or forced to dwell on their own personal shortcomings. “Especially when they’re anxious, people may gravitate toward self-relevant symbols,” Jones explained. “We think there’s something about these symbols that makes people feel more secure.” Added bonus: If you two can make things last for the long haul, you sure can save a lot of money on monogramming costs.
original site
No comments:
Post a Comment