PDF version Why are romantic comedies so popular among people? Do their narratives reflect men’s and women’s love? Romantic comedies, also known as rom-coms, are among the most popular film genres. However, they have often been criticized for not being … Continue reading
Category Archives: interpersonal perception in love
How You Feel You Are Loved
How do you feel you are loved? Do you? Professor Mengya Xia and her colleagues from the University of Alabama recently conducted an interesting exploratory study on the core elements of love across family, romantic, and friend relationships. This research … Continue reading
A Distinctive Smell Influences Our Emotions and Love
Smell is the most mysterious of the five senses, with an evocative power that can transfer us to different times, places, emotional states, and even the state of love. The scent of a particular perfume has a distinctive smell that … Continue reading
The Irresistible Attraction of Hugging in Love
Physical attraction and physical interaction of different kinds seem naturally involved in love relationships. Kissing, cuddling, and hugging are commonly associated with loving behavior. Why so? Is it culturally universal? Let us see why, for many loving and loved people, … Continue reading
Love Is Not So Blind as Many Might Think
Romantic lovers are not so blind in their perception of their loved ones. It was found that they can pretty accurately judge the abilities of their significant others. Some may believe that their partner knows them better than they know … Continue reading
Physically Attractive Men and Women in Different Cultures
Many men and women expect to get into mating or sexual relationships with partners who are “physically attractive,” “looking good enough,” or at least “not bad looking.” Many cultures recognize the cultural significance of women’s feminine beauty to men. Nevertheless, … Continue reading
The Pitfalls for Romantic Lovers
Romantic lovers have several main features that distinguish them from other types of lovers. As I noted in another place, romantic idealization is a core feature that makes love “romantic”, as opposed to “rational”, “practical”, and pragmatic.” Such idealization can … Continue reading
Attractive Personality Traits for Relationship
Several articles on this blog have covered a wide range of physical and socioeconomic characteristics that people in various cultures search for in potential mating partners. The last article demonstrated how the stereotype “what-is-beautiful-is-good” makes us believe in many other … Continue reading
What Physical Attractiveness Tells about Personality Traits
We like to talk to and have a relationship with beautiful and physically attractive men and women. Their physical attractiveness is pleasant for interpersonal communication. What is their personality like? Do pleasant or unpleasant personality traits predispose us to perceive … Continue reading
The Culturally High Emotional Expressiveness of Love
The studies presented in this article show that high levels of emotional expressiveness have become culturally normative forms of self-expression in modern societies. Multiple studies throughout the decades have reported numerous cross-cultural findings on how physical types of appearance, such … Continue reading