Japanese Marital Intimacy

I noted in another article, “The Japanese Dating Culture of “Tsukiau” Relationships“, that men and women enjoy the tsukiau relationship to explore the freedom of intimate emotional and sexual relations. They do not feel any pressure or expectation to marry. … Continue reading

Love in Bedouin Culture

Bedouin culture is the culture of the nomadic Arab people who live in Arabia, the territory that stretches from the deserts of North Africa to the rocky sands of the Middle East. Living in tribes, they have a common culture … Continue reading

What Kind of Partners Do Men and Women Prefer to Love and Marry?

Would you marry someone who is beautiful or handsome, kind, smart, honest, dependable, and industrious, as well as having many other qualities you desire in a mate, but you are not in love with her or him? What do men … 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

How Social Propinquity Leads to Love

The article explains how social propinquity and residential proximity affect our interpersonal relationships, love, and marriage. Men and women tend to like those with whom they get together frequently. In social science, this is called the “propinquity effect.” They have … Continue reading

You Fall in Love with Someone Genetically Similar to You

This article explains the surprising findings of studies which show that you are more likely to fall in love with someone who has genetic similarities to you. The Irresistible Attraction of Genetic Similarity What is more attractive to a loving … Continue reading

What’s an Ideal Age Difference in Dating?

What age of a prospective partner do you consider preferable? Would you prefer a partner of the same age as yours? Or would you prefer a partner with an age difference in dating? According to evolutionary views, men and women … Continue reading

Our Predisposition to Homogamy in Love

Genetic similarity and social homogamy play important roles in our interpersonal attraction and love. As I showed elsewhere, genetic resemblance between individuals predisposes them to fall in love. Partners in a couple share more genetic traits than random strangers. Nonetheless, … Continue reading

The “Mere Exposure Effect” and Love Attraction

Familiarity and similarity are powerful forces in our love attraction that can be influenced by genetic predisposition, imprinting, or by the “mere exposure effect.” They all have the same psychological mechanism of prototypicality. Despite our interest in novelty, we are … Continue reading