Love is a complicated and often times confusing human emotion. While you’re getting ready to spend this upcoming holiday of love with either your significant other or your friends, here are some fun facts about the psychology of love!
1. Psychologists have been able to prove that it takes a person 90 seconds to 4 minutes to decide if they like another person. So yes, it’s true, first impressions really do matter!
2. If this seems like too short a time, don’t worry because the odds are actually in your favor. In a study, 55% of participants said they could tell when a person liked them based off of their body language and 38% said tone and speed of their voice. That means that only 7% of people decided they liked a person based off of what was actually said! So take that as your step to finally go and start a conversation with your crush!
3. Love changes the way you think, especially in newly formed couples. A study done in Pisa, Italy analyzed blood samples from 20 couples to blood samples of those with obsessive compulsive disorder and found that the low serotonin levels of couples matches the serotonin levels of those with obsessive compulsive disorder. Wild, right?
4. There is a scientifically sound way of falling in love! York professor, Professor Arthur Arun completed a study where he took a man and women that had never met before and had them carry out three steps: 1) find a complete stranger, 2) reveal to each other intimate details about your lives for half an hour, 3) then, stare deeply into each other’s eyes without talking for four minutes. At the end of the experiment, many of the couples found that they felt attracted to each other and one of them even got married!
5. When you stare into your significant other’s eyes, your heart beats synchronize. Oddly enough, if this is done with someone that you are not romantically involved in, the heartbeats do not match up! The researchers at UC Davis also found that it was the woman’s heart rate that matched up to the man’s. So stare into your crush’s eyes and you’re basically half way there!
6. Falling in love has the same neurological effect as cocaine, seeing as both stimulate a sense of euphoria. Actually, falling in love stimulates 12 different parts of the brain at the same time!
7. Lastly romantic love eventually ends, only to be followed by committed love. This sounds scary but it just means that what is classified as romantic love, the whole euphoria, sweaty palms, and butterflies, only lasts about a year. After that, the so called “committed love” stage emerges and this is linked with elevated neurotrophin levels.