Pacific Standard March-April 2013 Cover

Contemplating Crushes: A Scholarly Look at Love

February 13, 2013 • By • Leave a Comment
(PHOTO: MMX/SHUTTERSTOCK)

You’re The One That I Want The idea that opposites attract is a long-time movie standby: Just think of Danny and Sandy from Grease (well, at least before she bought leather pants and got a perm). Sadly, this may be misleading to romantic hopefuls. A study published in Personality and Individual Differences reveals that similarities in personality may help predict longevity in relationships. Close to 5,000 couples were tracked over a five-year period, their personalities assessed at the beginning and end of this time. The results revealed that initial evidence of personality congruence ... Read More

More like this: The 101
Tags: , , ,

Marry You? Let Me Consult My Brain Scan

February 12, 2013 • By • Leave a Comment
heartsandminds

As Valentine’s Day approaches, some who find themselves in the ecstasy of a new romance will find their joy tempered by a nagging thought: “But will our love last?” Recently published research suggests that, when it comes to predicting persistent passion, the best crystal ball may turn out to be a brain scan. In the journal Neuroscience Letters, a research team led by Stony Brook University psychologist Xiaomeng Xu provides “preliminary evidence that neural responses in the early stages of romantic love can predict relationship stability and quality up to 40 months ... Read More

More like this: Findings
Tags: , , , ,

Going My Way? Commuting Can Draw Couples Closer

June 26, 2012 • By • Leave a Comment

Sharing a life’s journey is more pleasant if you and your partner are on parallel paths—literally. Studies in the U.S. and Hong Kong found that greater satisfaction with romantic relationships arose when couples took roughly the same route to work. "This was true regardless of whether the partners left for work at the same or different times," a research team led by Irene Huang of the Chinese University of Hong Kong writes in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. Researchers found this pattern in both an online survey of 280 married Americans, and a man-on-the-street survey ... Read More

More like this: Culture & Society, Findings
Tags:

Flowers Make Women More Receptive to Romance

April 7, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment

Men have been known to engage in all sorts of behaviors to enhance their sex appeal. Work out. Write bad poetry. Buy expensive cars. Well, guys, it turns out there’s a simpler way. If you want to increase the odds a woman will find you attractive, all you have to do is buy her a beautiful bouquet. Or, alternatively, hang out near a rose garden. Research from (where else?) France, just published in the journal Social Influence, found females were considerably more likely to accept an invitation for a date if they had just been sitting in a flower-festooned room. “These results ... Read More

More like this: Culture, Culture & Society, Findings
Tags: , , , , ,

Valentine Presents Cause Anxiety at the Gift Counter

February 12, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment

Have you bought that special someone a Valentine's Day gift yet? If so, was the process of picking out a present joyful, or stressful? If you chose the latter, you are far from alone. According to newly published research, "at least half of the population perceives gifting their romantic partners as more of an obligation, and less of a pleasure." Writing in the Journal of Business Research, Hieu Nguyen of California State University, Long Beach, and James Munch of Wright State University describe the psychological factors that underlie this discomfort, and they provide provocative advice ... Read More

More like this: Culture, Culture & Society, Findings
Tags: , , ,

Uncertainty Heightens Romantic Attraction

December 28, 2010 • By • Leave a Comment

With the ultimate date night fast approaching, men and women alike are attempting to decipher the seemingly random rules of romantic attraction. What combination of factors impels one person to think of another as potential mate material? Newly published research suggests one potent element in the mix is mystery. “Keeping people in the dark about how much we like them will increase how much they think about us and will pique their interest,” a research team reports in the journal Psychological Science. University of Virginia psychologists Erin Witchurch and Timothy Wilson, and ... Read More

More like this: Culture, Culture & Society, Findings, NEWS
Tags: , , , ,

Love Songs Linked to Receptiveness to Romance

June 15, 2010 • By • 1 Comment

Ladies: Have you ever given your phone number to a guy in a bar or bistro and then wondered why on earth you did? Sure, your inebriation level probably played a role, but new research suggests you may have acted under the influence of yet another powerful mood-enhancer: that romantic music playing in the background. That’s the conclusion of a study titled "Love is in the Air," just published in the journal Psychology of Music. Lead author Nicolas Guèguen, a professor of social behavior at the University of Bretagne-Sud in France, has published revealing research about courtship cues (a ... Read More

More like this: Culture, Findings, NEWS
Tags: , , ,

Romance Novel Titles Reveal Readers’ Desires

March 2, 2010 • By • 9 Comments

Great thinkers from Sigmund Freud to Mel Gibson have profitably pondered the timeless question “What do women want?” Now, two Canadian researchers — one of each gender — have taken a novel approach to solving this purported puzzle. In a paper titled "The Texas Billionaire’s Pregnant Bride," recently published in the Journal of Social, Evolutionary and Cultural Psychology, they analyze the titles of Harlequin romance novels. Anthony Cox of the Center of Psychology and Computing and psychologist Maryanne Fisher of St. Mary’s University contend these best-selling volumes — and in ... Read More

More like this: CAROUSEL, Culture, Culture & Society, Findings
Tags: , , , ,

Apparently Wallflowers Will Not Pollinate

July 16, 2009 • By • Leave a Comment

Birds do it. Bees do it. Even hardcore video gamers do it. Dance. We're talking about dance here, people. From the tribal lands of Africa, to the court of Louis the XIV, to the stage of FOX's So You Think You Can Dance, dance has been a pervasive part of human's history and culture. Today, if you're a male of our species and dance well, you'll garner the adoration of the ladies. But dance like you've got two left feet, and you'll have to find another way to impress the masses. But why? Well, according to research published recently in the journal Personality and Individual ... Read More

More like this: Culture & Society, Findings
Tags: , , ,

Romantic Comedies Hazard to Kids’ Emotional Health?

December 19, 2008 • By • Leave a Comment

In a study to be published in the next issue of Communication Quarterly, psychologists Kimberly Johnson and Bjarne Holmes of Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh analyzed 40 top-grossing romantic comedies released between 1995 and 2005. Not surprisingly, they found that the films “typically focused on relationships in their early stages.” And yet, they found, the characters often behaved in ways “suggestive of deeper feelings that ordinarily develop over time, and as such are usually absent early on.” Specifically, characters “performed actions purely to promote partners’ ... Read More

More like this: Media, Mediator
Tags: , ,