Although love is usually categorized as an emotion, a variety of biological, psychological, and sociological factors determine with whom a person falls in love and how long that feeling lasts. For example, physical attraction depends on factors such as physiological arousal, the effects of pheromones, facial features, and similarity, but biological factors do not contribute to the development of long-lasting relationships because the initial attraction fades (Braxton-Davis & Boudreaux, 2010, p. 7). In other words, it is possible to fall in love with a person because of biological factors, but psychological and sociological factors determine if the feeling persists and contributes to the development of a long-term relationship. Fisher (2008) explains that people fall in love with others who are similar to them in terms of psychological factors (e.g., intelligence) and sociological factors (e.g., socioeconomic background and religious values).
Considering the fact that a lot of factors that contribute to falling in love and their mutual interactions still require more research, there is no universal definition of love. In order to describe what love is, Fisher (2008) read the poem by an anonymous Kwakiutl Indian, who describes love as an incredible sensation of pain in the body. Therefore, she defines romantic love as the most powerful sensation humans can experience. At the end of her talk, after presenting the findings of magnetic resonance imaging, Fisher (2008) concludes that love is in us as a part of our central nervous system. Those two definitions do not explain what love actually is and how people experience it, so it is important to consider how the brain works when people fall in love to explain that phenomenon.
During her talk, Fisher (2008) mentioned three major changes observed in the brain of those who fall in love. First, the A10 cells increase the production of dopamine and send it to the part of the brain’s reward system associated with wants, focus, craving, and motivation that are below cognitive and even emotional processes. The activation of dopamine production and distribution explains why falling in love feels like a drug-induced high. Second, the core of the nucleus accumbens increases activity when people are falling in love, and that part of the brain is associated with calculating gains and losses. Because that part becomes active when people are willing to take enormous risks, the activation of that part of the brain would explain why people in love tend to do stupid things. Third, the brain imaging results showed activity in brain regions associated with attachment to other individuals, and activity in those regions explains why people in love feel intense levels of energy, focus, and motivation.
Cheating is mentioned only in the title of Fisher’s talk, it is suggested during the talk that love is just a basic mating drive based on the activities observed in the brain. However, it is different from sex drive because sex drive is the desire to be with many partners, whereas romantic love causes the person to direct all mating energies towards one person. It is important to consider that psychological factors may also play a role in determining why some individuals are more likely to cheat than others. According to McTernan, Love, and Rettinger (2014, p. 53), all forms of cheating, whether that term refers to competitive, social, or relationship cheating, were associated with three personality traits: increased impulsivity, increased sensation seeking, and decreased ability of empathetic perspective taking.
Although the physiological processes involved in creating the sensation of love have been researched and identified, there is no concise definition of what love exactly is. Different people may have a different experience of love, but it appears to be a fundamental part of the brain that has the ability to overpower cognitive processes and even emotions. Brain activity alone can explain how people fall in love and function while they are in love in love but not why they fall in love, and the biology of falling in love is something Fisher (2008) is trying to uncover in her future studies.
References
Braxton-Davis, P., & Boudreaux, C. (2010). The social psychology of love and attraction. McNair Scholars Journal, 14(1), 6-12.
Fisher, H. (Speaker). (2008, February). The brain in love. TED. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/helen_fisher_studies_the_brain_in_love?language=en
McTernan, M., Love, P., & Rettinger, D. (2014). The influence of personality on the decision to cheat. Ethics & Behavior, 24(1), 53-72.
