Aron, A., Dutton, D. G., Aron, E. N., & Iverson, A. (1989). Experiences of falling in love. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 6(3), 243-257. https://doi.org/10.1177/0265407589063001

Study reported the data from accounts of falling in love collected in three samples: (a) lengthy accounts from fifty undergraduates who had fallen in love in the previous eight months; (b) brief accounts from 100 adult nonstudents, which were compared to 100 brief falling-in-friendship accounts from the same population; and (c) questionnaire responses about falling-in-love experiences from 277 undergraduates, which were compared to questionnaire responses about falling-in-friendship experiences from eighty-three similar undergraduates.

Authors reported the results of content analysis that showed that

• falling in love was preceded by frequent reported incidences of discovering other’s liked the self and noticing other’s desirable characteristics (appearance and personality);
• moderate incidences of perceived similarity, propinquity and `special falling-in-love processes’ (readiness, specific cues, arousal/unusualness, mystery, isolation); and
• relatively low reported incidences of filling needs and social influence.

The authors commented that those trends differed from what the general-attraction and mate-selection literatures predicted.

On the other hand, falling-in-friendship narratives placed a greater focus on similarity and proximity, but less on reciprocal liking, other’s attractive features, wants, and the unique falling-in-love processes.