Background: Passionate love involves physiological, emotional, and cognitive features that greatly changes behavior. This phenomenon seems universal or near universal. Even other animal species choose partners. An intense state of passionate love is associated with activity in dopamine pathways of the brain ‘reward system’, and recently has been regarded as a ‘natural addiction’. Instruments or...

This article presents a triangular theory of love. According to the theory, love has three components: (a) intimacy, which encompasses the feelings of closeness, connectedness, and bondedness one experiences in loving relationships; (b) passion, which encompasses the drives that lead to romance, physical attraction, and sexual consummation; and (c) decision/commitment, which encompasses, in the...

Based on the fractional order of nonlinear system for love model with a periodic function as an external environment, we analyze the characteristics of the chaotic dynamic. We analyze the relationship between the chaotic dynamic of the fractional order love model with an external environment and the value of fractional order (α, β) when the parameters are fixed. Meanwhile, we also study the rel...

Love and hate are basic human affects. Previous research has focused on the classification, functions, and other aspects of these two affects. However, few studies have been conducted on the relationship between love and hate. The present study investigated whether similarity within romantic partners was associated with greater feelings of love in the absence of betrayal, and greater hate induc...

As love seems to be universal, researchers have attempted to find its biological basis. However, no studies till date have shown its direct association with reproductive success, which is broadly known to be a good measure of fitness. Here, we show links between love, as defined by the Sternberg Triangular Theory of Love, and reproductive success among the Hadza-traditional hunter-gatherer popu...

The present research investigated whether accommodation, typically formulated as the tendency to deliberately inhibit a destructive reaction in response to a partner's destructive behavior, could also occur spontaneously. Supporting this notion, results of the first study revealed that participants respond to their partner's angry face with a spontaneous smile, whereas strangers' angry faces ar...

This discussion aims to give a normative theoretical basis for a "best judgment" model of surrogate decision making rooted in a regulative ideal of love. Currently, there are two basic models of surrogate decision making for incompetent patients: the "substituted judgment" model and the "best interests" model. The former draws on the value of autonomy and responds with respect; the latter draws...

Everyone needs intimate relationships that provide appreciation, support, recreation, and protection. In addition, these kinds of relationships make effective means of enhancing self-esteem and feelings of mastery and thus promote overall well-being. What are characteristics of today‘s friendship and love? These issues are analyzed in this article grounding on a vast body of research literature...

In the summer of 2009, I visited a humble orphanage for children with HIV/AIDS in Vietnam. Here, like many parts in the world, the very existence of marginalized people with stigmatized illness is hidden away. Relegated to the shadows of society, these children lacked something more fundamental than housing, shelter, nutrition and medications. They lacked families to love and care for them unco...