Category Archives: modern love studies

modern studies of love, cultures across the world

Several Effective Flirtation Tactics in Norwegian and American Cultures

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Flirting is the art of seducing a potential romantic or sexual partner through playful verbal and nonverbal exchanges. A variety of factors, such as the gender of a person, his or her attractiveness, personality traits, and situational context, contribute to the success of flirting. Flirtation techniques can be nonverbal, such as using smiles, posture, and eye contact to express interest. Verbal flirtation techniques are the art of saying a compliment to a person of interest. All these ways of interpersonal communication are often involved in the initiation stage of romantic or sexual relationships. Some men and women enjoy these flirtation tactics all the time. This can be called a “playful style of love.” (Karandashev, 2022).

The New Cross-Cultural Study of Flirtation

The question remains: what flirtation tactics are more effective than others? Let us look at some new research evidence recently published in the journal of Evolutionary Psychology. According to the study, laughing at other people’s jokes is an effective technique for both men and women. However, in other regards, these flirtation tactics can be different for men and women.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of flirting in love relationships. The research question is whether these flirtation tactics are different for men and women.

The study was also interesting in terms of the effect of cultural contexts. The study was cross-cultural and compared perceptions of flirting among people living in Norway, a very gender egalitarian society, and people living in the United States of America, a more religious country. Researchers created four versions of the questionnaire:

  • a woman flirting with a man for short-term sex,
  • a woman flirting with a man for a long-term relationship,
  • a man flirting with a woman for short-term sex, and
  • a man flirting with a woman for a long-term relationship.

Participants filled out the questionnaires about their flirtation strategies, sociosexuality, extraversion, mate value, and religiosity.

The authors from Norwegian and American universities (Kennair et al., 2022) conducted the study among students in these two relatively different cultures. Two samples were used: one from Norway and one from the United States. Students at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology made up their sample group in Norway. The US sample was made up of college students in the Northeast who were in their first to fourth years.

This study advanced our understanding of gender differences in flirting strategies in two countries. Here is a summary of some key findings.

Gender Similarities in Flirting Tactics

In the context of long-term relationships, men and women employ largely similar flirting strategies. For instance, the study supported the role of humor in interpersonal attraction and perception of mate value. Both men and women can effectively flirt by laughing at each other’s jokes. Such responses to humor through laughing or giggling are equally effective flirtation tactics in both men’s and women’s behavior during conversation.

Gender Differences in Flirting Tactics

The findings of the study revealed gender differences in flirting tactics. Men and women differ in the flirtation tactics they use and perceive as effective.

On the one hand, when women dressed sexy, showed off their bodies, or used sexualized physical contact, men liked these flirting tactics in the context of short-term mating relationships.

On the other hand, when men appear generous, committed, and able to maintain intimate conversations and spend time together, women perceive these flirting tactics as effective in the context of long-term mating relationships. Both findings are in accord with the traditional evolutionary interpretation of the different mating preferences of men and women (see for review Karandashev, 2022).

Cultural Differences in Flirting Between Norwegians and Americans

The United States sample was more religious than the Norwegian sample. That reflected on their use of flirting tactics. Participants in the Norwegian sample were more open in their sociosexual orientation, showing a willingness to engage in casual and uncommitted sexual relationships.

Americans are better at flirting by being generous and looking for attention than Norwegians are. 

How Love Kindness Makes You Feel Good

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Simple kindness toward another person is an important act of love. Kindness is a form of love because it includes the desire for good and positive consequences for the loved person. These kinds of motivations and actions strengthen love as the positive interpersonal connection between one who loves and another who is loved. Love kindness promotes connections to others. This good will and doing of love are beneficial to the one who loves. 

Why Kindness Is Love?

There is a great diversity of cultural and individual understanding of what love is. The languages across cultures vary in the words they use for love (Karandashev, 2019). Despite this diversity, the most basic and important thing about any kind of love is that it brings and does something good for another person (Wirzbicka, 1992, 1999). In other words, love is an investment in the other’s well-being for the sake of the other (Hegi & Bergner, 2010). See more about this in Cultural Typologies of Love (Karandashev, 2022). So, to love someone means wanting the best for them and acting in their best interests. This is exactly what kindness does.

Kindness Strengthens Positive Social Connection in Love

The kindness of love is thought to be a form of positive social connection. When you do things that help other people, like saying good words or giving personal support, you make positive connections with another person. Love as kindness can also be described by words like compassion, generosity, and care, among other similar words. All these kind things make another person feel good.

When Kindness Makes People Feel Good

The study of Rowland and Curry (2019), for instance, has shown a range of kindness activities that boost people’s positive moods and feelings of happiness. Researchers investigated the effects of a seven-day kindness activity on changes in subjective happiness. Their study was based on an earlier systematic review and meta-analysis of the psychological effects of kindness, which showed that performing these acts of kindness increases people’s happiness and overall well-being.

The specific purpose of this study was to see how different manifestations of kindness, as narrated by the type of activity prescribed, have different effects on happiness. Researchers compared acts of kindness to strong social ties, novel acts of self-kindness, weak social ties, and observed kindness. The study compared experimental groups to a control group that was not assigned to do any acts of kindness.

Overall, the results showed that participating in kindness activities for a week increased happiness. Also, researchers found a strong link between the number of acts of kindness and an increase in happiness. Interestingly, the effect did not differ across the various types of experimental groups and conditions. This means that being kind to others in both strong and weak relationships, being kind to oneself, and just seeing other people be kind all make people happier.

Why Love and Kindness Make You Feel Good According to studies, kindness elicits an elevated mood and increases altruism. Moreover, by doing good things for another person, you can make yourself feel good and even happy. Such prosocial behavior as doing good things for another person makes you feel what’s called “other-praising moral emotion.” This is a term for the good feelings you get when you see other people doing good things like being generous, selfless, loving, and kind. Some of the physical sensations of being uplifted are warmth and tears (see for review, Aliouche, The Science of Kindness).

Emoji Love and Other Emotions in the Virtual World

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In modern culture, it seems easy to guess what “heart” and especially “red heart” mean. Guess what? Love! So, the corresponding symbols are common in modern virtual world. The emoji ❤️ adopted the same meaning social media messages. The red heart emoji is a classic image to express love and romance. The read heart ❤️ and two hearts 💕 are among the popular heart emoji used on Twitter (What Every Heart Emoji Really Means by Keith Broni, Jeremy Burge, Feb 11, 2021).

What is the best emoji for love? It depends on personal preferences. Nevertheless, some believe that among the most popular are

  •  ❤️: Red Heart. …
  • 😻: Smiling Cat with Heart Eyes. …
  • 😍: Smiling Face with Heart Eyes. …
  • 😘: Face Blowing a Kiss. …
  • 💕: Two Hearts. …

What Emoji Are Used for Love Across Cultures?

In a survey for World Emoji Day, conducted by OnePoll on behalf of Duolingo and Slack, researchers showed respondents various emoji and asked what meaning they were most likely to associate with them. The survey also investigated how emoji usage and meaning differ across countries. It was discovered that emoji can mean different things in different cultures around the world.

Chris Melore presented an interesting review of this international survey.

For example, let us look at how the “face throwing a kiss” (😘) is used. For “romantic love” or “platonic love”?

It was found that this emoji is popular among U.S. Americans, Indians, and Japanese people in different ways.

Indians prefer to use it more frequently for romantic love than for platonic love (52% vs. 27%).

Americans are also slightly more likely to use it as a sign of romantic love than of platonic love (34% vs. 26%).

However, Japanese preferences are the opposite. They tend to use the kissy face less frequently for romantic love than for platonic love (16% vs. 30%).

It is worthy of note that the “slightly smiling face” (🙂) frequently expresses “general positivity” (39%) and “feeling happy” (38%). These meanings are among the top uses for this emoji globally. However, this emoji may express less positive emotions than one may think.

Emoji are also frequently used to express sentiments of care and support. It was especially noticeable during the recent COVID-19 pandemic times. People often use the heart (❤️) and similar emoji to show love and support. Globally, differences between age groups exist in this regard. Across many cultures, younger generations mention that the emoji they send to someone are often misunderstood by the recipients. Young people of Gen Z mentioned this more frequently, at 31% among all respondents, than millennials, at 24% of respondents.

The Irresistible Attraction of Hugging in Love

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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, it is such a pleasurable experience of love.

The Physical Attraction of Hugging and Cuddling

Generally, love feelings and love relationships involve physical attraction. This is why lovers experience action tendencies such as a desire to be physically near a loved one, a desire for interpersonal proximity, and a desire to spend more time together. When people are in love, they feel a longing and even a craving for physical union, including cuddling, kissing, and hugging (Karandashev & Fata, 2014; Karandashev et al., 2020).

Many of us enjoy hugging and cuddling as well as being hugged or cuddled. Being in close physical relationships with loved ones is enjoyable. When we are down, another’s embrace provides comfort. When we are up, it increases our joy.

What about the person who is touching and hugging? Is their act incumbent and solely motivated by kindness, or does it also make them feel good?

The Evolutionary Origin of Loving Touching

Generally, friendly touching in the context of social interactions was viewed as an evolutionary remnant related to body hygiene and was regarded as secondary in importance. This is why in the societies of early evolutionary stages and some traditional cultures of the past, cultural norms considered physical intimacy in close relationships of low value. The touching that occurs when humans interact with the physical world was more important. However, recent studies have uncovered the important links between affectionate touch and the benefits this loving action brings to both children and parents. What about other types of loving relationships?

Findings like this have sparked recent research into how gentle physical contact influences the biological and psychological processes that promote the mental and physical well-being of lovers and loved ones. The review of studies like this is presented in the recent publications (Karandashev et al., 2016; Karandashev, Zarubko et al., 2020).

Do We Have Nerve Fibers Sensitive to Human Contact?

Scientific investigations have yielded numerous interesting findings. Among these is the discovery of a special sensory nerve fiber that appears to be particularly “interested” in human touch. This fiber is activated by gentle caress and feels more pleasant than other types of touch. Researchers believe that this human touch fiber, C-tactile afferent, is the key gateway into how physical contact produces positive feelings, reduces stress, and allows humans to thrive.

The Human Need to Touch

An interesting fact is that the special human touch fiber exists only in hairy skin, which means it is not present in the palms of our hands, which we typically use for touching. Researchers in the field continue to further investigate the role of touch in human development and health care. The question of interest is what touch does to a recipient and what the function of touch is for those who give it.

The fact that touching comes so naturally and readily frequently feels like an impulse, even in circumstances where there isn’t a clear need to console or encourage.

When we interact with a pet, child, friend, or romantic partner, we feel a pleasant natural tendency to reach out, rub, or poke. In the cases of dogs and cats, it is especially evident because they cannot return the petting they receive from us. So, the question is whether touching gives us direct, tactile rewards that are similar to those we get when we are touched. Prof. Dr. Annett Schirmer, at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, along with her colleagues, attempted to answer this question. They conducted polls among young people in Germany and Hong Kong. Participants responded to two online questionnaires, one in the position of providing touch and the other in the role of receiving touch. In both surveys, participants had to explain a typical circumstance that led to tickling, stroking, or, for example, hugging. They also had to indicate the kinds of people with whom such touching felt comfortable and draw an outline of their body where they would feel the most comfortable being touched.

Who Benefits From Touch More?

According to those survey results, touch giving and receiving occur most often in positive situations and bring the associated positive feelings, such as affection, love, joy, and fun, to both. Surprisingly, greater pleasure is experienced by those who give than by those who receive touch. It is worthy of note that the feelings of comfort were higher with those in close relationships than with those in distant relationships.

The places on the body where a person feels comfortable being touched are similar to those for giving touch. Typically, prime comfort zones are the shoulders, upper back, and arms. It is likely that there is a natural correspondence between touchers and touchees, prompting both to engage in mutually pleasant and beneficial behavior. It is interesting that they are the same for both men and women in both cultures, in Germany and Hong Kong. Our extensive cross-cultural studies of recent years have revealed many other interesting findings on the role of touching, hugging, and other sensory experiences in romantic loving preferences (Karandashev et al., 2016; Karandashev, Zarubko et al., 2020).

The Measurement Pitfalls of Research Designs in Cultural Studies of Religions

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Cross-cultural comparability and generalizability are the problems that come up in religious studies and need to be solved for scientific progress (Karandashev, 2021a; Karandashev et al., 2022; Fischer, 2022). When studying behavioral and social phenomena in various populations and religious contexts, culture matters. In this regard, the lead article by Ronald Fischer (2022) in the recent issue of the journal Religion, Brain & Behavior is particularly useful. The author of that article shares personal reflections on the study that their team reported on during their exploratory journey. Here is a summary of one of the two points covered in his commentary “Cultural lessons missed and learned about religion and culture.” It is about “how important cultural context is for thinking about, and researching, religion, morality, and evolution.”

The Typical Mistakes and Their Effective Solutions to Studying Religions from a Cross-Cultural Perspective

The study’s goal was to investigate the universality and evolutionary perspective of religious concepts. Researchers considered cultural dynamics throughout the process, including the specification of key variables, variable operationalization, measurement context, and result interpretation. Researchers summarized the new efficient translation methods (Harkness et al., 2003). They proposed the updated checklists for use by cultural researchers (Hambleton & Zenisky, 2010; Harkness et al., 2003, 2010; Hernández et al., 2020).

In this lead article, Ronald Fischer (2022) addressed two groups of methodological issues:

The first one is the problems of cross-cultural universality of the concepts under study, their conceptual equivalency, the selection of major variables, and their conceptual descriptions and operationalization. These questions are summarized in another article.

The second one is the problems such as cultural contexts of measurement, technical procedures of measurement, cultural biases in measurements, measurement invariance across cultural samples, and culturally sensitive interpretation of results. These questions are summarized in this article.

Confounding Cultural Variables in the Studies of Religions

In complex cross-cultural research, the design itself may create confounding factors. Who is a local co-religionist as opposed to a remote one in a religious context? Religions frequently make fine distinctions in group membership. In the cultural context of Candomblé religion, this includes questions about

  • who went through the initial initiation (“bori”) with you,
  • who is a member of the same “terreiro,” house of worship, typically organized around extended family ties),
  • who has the same sitting “orixá.”

Without knowledge of these regionally relevant group distinctions, the research design of a cultural study lacks these essential local details.

In addition, classic cross-cultural research has demonstrated that both familiarity and theoretically irrelevant features can influence

  • behavioral and cognitive responses (Serpell, 1979),
  • social expectation or experimenter effects that can be difficult to identify or avoid (Smith et al., 2013).

The Cultural Biases in Religious Studies

Typically referred to as technique biases, these difficulties involve

  • how tests are conducted,
  • by whom, and in what (implicit or explicit) context.

Humans are sociable experts. They try to predict what others want from them. These attempts may lead to an array of behavioral adaptations with the intentions

  • to make favorable impressions,
  • form alliances, or
  • gain tiny advantages over local competitors or
  • trade favors with outside visitors.

Depending on how the participants interpret the testing circumstances, these motivations can reverse the expected behavioral responses.

This is another challenge for cultural research. Individuals in small-scale societies converse and make assumptions as to why someone may or may not have received the money. The questions arise

“Does the payout matrix align with the implicit group lineages that participants construct while participating in the experiment?

Does the knowledge of pay-outs affect the next participant’s strategy of playing? ” (Fischer, 2022, p. 214)

In environments with greater interdependence, individuals are likely to respond depending on who has already been tested or how many individuals remain to be evaluated (Yamagishi et al., 2008). These different techniques’ biases provide considerable obstacles for evaluating the outcomes of money distribution and frequently necessitate ingenious and observant researchers conversant with local cultures and standards.

The Pitfalls of Priming Research Designs in Cultural and Religious Studies The research with priming tasks poses other questions. The procedure of priming requires locally salient categories regardless of the question of replicability concerns with priming. This brings scientists back to the principles of functional and structural equivalence, which we talked about above.

“What is a moralistic god vs. a local god?”

(Fischer, 2022, p. 214).

The Christian “God,” which is not part of the Candomblé religion, and Ogum, a particular orixá linked with ironwork and war, are very different planes of existence. Therefore, a contrast between those two may not convey what the researchers intended.

For Candomblé believers, the Christian “God” is familiar. It is simple to identify and acknowledge this deity’s significance in the larger community. However, it is not necessarily an entity with personal meaning for a Candomblé devotee. In the same vein, depending on the context, Ogum may be appropriate for particular goals or for particular individuals.

What is an adequate and comparable indication of the idea of interest within the local cultural context? Questions like this are very important in the context of structural equivalence, specifically the issue of conceptual domain representation.

The Importance of Local Context in Cultural Research In conclusion, Ronald Fischer (2022) encourages cultural researchers to pay more attention to the local cultural context of their studies. He suggests learning the lessons from researchers of previous generations who made progress through these challenging paths.

Unexpected Conceptual Challenges in Cultural Studies of Religions

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Cultural studies of religions encounter the problems of cross-cultural comparability and generalizability, which need to be resolved for further scientific progress in this field (Karandashev, 2021a; Karandashev et al., 2022; Fischer, 2022). Culture matters when we study behavioral and social phenomena in different populations and religious contexts. The lead article by Ronald Fischer (2022) in the recent issue of the journal Religion, Brain & Behavior is very valuable in this respect. In that article, the author presents personal reflections of the study that their team reported on their exploratory journey. Here I summarize one of the two points on which his commentary “Cultural lessons missed and learnt about religion and culture” focuses. It is about “how important cultural context is for thinking about religion, morality, and evolution and researching them.”

The Best Way to Explore Religions in a Cross-Cultural Perspective

The research team intended to explore the universality and evolutionary salient dynamics. Therefore, they considered cultural dynamics all the way, including the specification of key variables, operationalization of variables, the measurement context, and the interpretation of the results. Researchers developed effective translation options (Harkness et al., 2003). They also made checklists for researchers to use (Hambleton & Zenisky, 2010; Harkness et al., 2003, 2010; Hernández et al., 2020).

There are two groups of methodological issues which Ronald Fischer (2022) addresses in his lead article:

The first set of questions concerns the issues of conceptual equivalency and cross-cultural universality of the concepts under study, the selection of key variables, their conceptual definitions, and the operationalization of those variables. These questions are summarized in this article.

The second set of questions concerns the issues of technical procedures of measurement, cultural contexts of measurement, measurement invariance across cultural samples, cultural biases in measurements, and culturally sensitive interpretation of results. These questions are summarized in another article.

Conceptual Problems in Cross-Cultural Studies of Religions and Their Solutions

The author (Fischer, 2022) illustrates some conceptual questions with concrete examples. They are mainly taken from Afro-Brazilian Candomblé, one of the field sites. The religious landscape project began with 20 community members being interviewed and asked to name five gods or spirits. The prominence of these gods or spirits in people’s lives was ranked. In an environment with a single deity or a list of widely known gods or spirits, it may be easy to answer these questions and discuss them with strangers. It was a different social situation in the case of that study due to cultural circumstances that:

  • these are the religious systems in which gods or spirits are individualized: each person has a guardian spirit,
  • religious information may not be given to non-initiates,
  • spirits may not be identified, or
  • the prominence of a god or spirit depends on the topic or occasion.

The Cultural Case of Candomblé Religion in Brazil

The religion of Candomblé is a fascinating case study because a person is a “filho/a de santo,” that is, the “son” or “daughter” of a particular “orixá” (ancestor figure). Hence, a person has a highly intimate bond with a potent ancestor spirit. Individuals who have not reached the same level of initiation should not be given specific information about what these orixás may or may not do. It’s important to know that there are different kinds of Candomblé, each with its own rules and taboos.

Given individualized relationships on the one hand and what a respondent may or may not be able or permitted to say with non-religious outsiders, researchers encounter a challenge. They may or may not obtain a consensus by interviewing 20 individuals. These people may hesitate, considering how acceptable it is to disclose one’s personal gods to an outsider. The question of insider vs. outsider knowledge is central to traditional indigenous research procedures such as pagtatanong-tanong in the Philippines (Pe-Pua, 1989) and in other cultural cases.

Researchers should take this personalized status as crucial in light of one of the key distinctions: “What is an omniscient or punitive god?” (Fischer, 2022, p. 214). Depending on which orixá and the relationship of the believer to that orixá, an orixá may be both or either. This distinction may not make sense to participants when viewed:

  • through a functional lens: “Does the concept or idea make “sense” within the local cultural context?”
  • through a structural equivalence lens: “What are appropriate empirical instantiations of the concept or idea?” (Fischer & Poortinga, 2018; Fontaine, 2005; van de Vijver & Leung, 1997).

The question remains whether these issues communicate this confusion to an outsider. Maybe yes, but maybe not.

An Invisible Swedish Romance

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How romantic are Swedish people? What does love look like in the cold climate of this Nordic culture?

There are two possible planes of reality to consider in this regard: ideal and real (Karandashev, 2022a). The first one concerns how love is presented as a cultural idea in literature, art, cinema, and other social media, which create cultural love models.

The second one concerns how love is really experienced by people in their daily lives.

This article considers the first plane of love in how romantic love is represented in literary genres of Swedish literature and what popular romance looks like in a Swedish cultural context. According to Maria Nilson and Helene Ehriander, the scholars at Linneaus University’s center for research in popular culture in Sweden, popular romance has been a challenging genre in Swedish literature for many years (Nilson & Ehriander, December 21, 2020).

Why Literary Romance in Sweden Was Invisible?

In Sweden, there is a strong literary tradition of realistic novels. Occasional romantic fiction was written and published but attracted little interest among Swedish readers. did not attract much readability. Popular romances were rarely discussed in public. The genre was generally invisible in scholarship as well as in the cultural arena. For many years, Swedish literature has had a poor tradition in the romantic love genre. Until recently, few romance titles appeared in the Swedish book market. Romance has been and continues to be viewed as a static genre comprised of poorly written books that are strikingly similar and simplistic in plots and characters. Generally, popular romance in the country is a genre with a “bad reputation.” Romantic writing has been seen as being an endless repetition of essentially the same plots, as old-fashioned as it gets. Authors and readers of romantic novels have been largely women. Some consider the romantic genre as literature that strengthens old patriarchal norms and ideals.

Some may theorize that the traditional unpopularity of romance in Sweden could be related to the cold climate of the country or the reserved character of people in Swedish culture. In any case, this can be related to the culturally normative ways in which Nordic people experience and express emotions.

The range of fiction commonly read in Swedish schools and universities is traditional. The same selection of classics, as it was in the 1980s, is still in the curriculum. Popular romance novels are not covered in the “main” literature course. The romance genre is frequently considered as old-fashioned, patriarchal, or subversive (Nilson & Ehriander, December 21, 2020).

The Origins of Nordic Romance Novels in “Chick Lit”

The Nordic genre of “chick lit” is related in some ways to the genre of romance. It is a sort of “subgenre” of popular romance. The “chick lit” genre was also associated with “women’s fiction” in the 1970s by Erica Jong and Marilyn French.

Chick lit came to Sweden with Bridget Jones’s Diary by Fielding. After the success of this romantic novel, several other books were translated into Swedish. Then, several Swedish writers also began writing Swedish chick lit with the conflicting desires that characterize this genre. Nordic chick lit novels have typically featured conflicting desires, a distinct writing style with distinct presentations of speech and thought, and distinct tones and settings.

The Swedish welfare state has had a significant influence on Swedish chick lit. The “non-western” novels of chick lit in Nordic cultures have shifted their genre. These books changed and developed the genre, rather than just mimicking American bestsellers. The heroes of Swedish chick lit embodied so-called “modern men” who have no problem with washing up the dishes or changing diapers. The chick lit heroines in Swedish authors’ novels are more concerned with their love interests, female friends, and careers than with their families. The classic chick-lit themes are reimagined in terms of Nordic social conditions, gender roles, and cultural contexts.

The Rise of Swedish Interest in “Popular Romance” In recent years, the genre of “popular romance” has gradually appeared in public view and in the Swedish cultural context. Simona Ahrnstedt is a bestselling author who has extensively written her books as romances. She started out by writing historical romances. Yet, her big breakthrough was the love novel En enda natt (All In). She actively promoted this genre in Sweden (Nilson & Ehriander, December 21, 2020).

Love Is a Social Connection, even between Zebrafish

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Social connections and pair-bonding between conspecifics are widespread forms of love among humans, primates, mammals, dogs, and birds. What about fish? Here we’ll talk about the simple form of how zebrafish love their conspecifics.

Is Love Simply a Connection?

Some scholars consider love as a positive social connection, as a way of social bonding between individuals. It is perfectly true. I believe that many forms of human love evolve from a basic need to positively connect, bond, and belong. Human life depends on having a positive connection with other people. People need other people, whether they are close or far from us, to live and do well (see for review, Karandashev, 2022a, in press).

Love Is Social Bonding

According to evolutionary and cultural theories, community bonding was the earliest form of love. This type of love stemmed from basic survival needs in the ecological, economic, and social conditions under which people lived in specific environments and societies. The varieties of historically evolved cultures determined specific forms of love.

It’s well known that humans are “social animals.” It is possible, however, that many animals are also “social.” Studies show that not only humans, but also other animals have evolved the psychological mechanisms of prosocial behavior, cooperation, and social bonding that have helped them survive in the natural and social worlds (e.g., Germonpré, Lázničková-Galetová, Sablin, & Bocherens, 2018; Marshall-Pescini, Virányi, & Range, 2015; Hare, 2017; 2006; Fisher, 2004; Rosenblum & Plimpton, 1981, see for review Karandashev, 2022a in press).

Humans are not alone in their propensity to cooperate with members of their own species to meet their needs and to survive and thrive. For example, in nature, herds of mammals, flocks of birds, or shoals of fish abundantly exhibit prosocial tendencies. There is plenty of evidence of social bonding in dogs and primates (see for review, Karandashev, 2022a, in press).

Throughout thousands of years of biological evolution, special physiological and neural mechanisms of social connection and love have evolved in animals and humans (e.g., Buss, 2006; Eastwick, 2009; Esch & Stefano, 2005; Fisher, Aron, & Brown, 2006; Fletcher et al., 2015; Gonzaga & Haselton, 2008; Lampert, 1997; Zeki, 2007, see for review Karandashev, 2022a, in press).

Social connections necessitate that an individual recognize others as belonging to their own sort. How does the brain of an animal recognize other members of its own species?

Connections and Attractions of Zebrafish

Johannes Kappel, Johannes Larsch, and their colleagues at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence investigated this process in juvenile zebrafish. They found a neural circuit that mediates the social attraction of zebrafish. This path, which goes from the retina to the brain, lets zebrafish detect and approach neighboring conspecifics.

Recent studies by scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence have discovered the neural processes in young zebrafish that enable zebrafish to detect and approach nearby conspecifics. Researchers found that zebrafish social attraction is mediated by a neuronal circuit—the specialized pathway that runs from the retina all the way into the brain.

Shoaling Behavior of Zebrafish

Scientists investigated the role of the visual system and neuronal processing of the stimulus in the social interactions of zebrafish. Experiments demonstrated that a moving dot activates a particular collection of neurons in the thalamus region of the brain. The thalamus is the brain’s sensory control center, integrating and relaying sensory information.

When another zebrafish larva is nearby, the same region of the thalamus becomes active. On its way to the thalamus, sensory information is processed first in the retina and then in the tectum, a key visual center of the vertebrate brain. When information gets to the thalamus, it has already been checked for social cues, like jerky movements from a possible conspecific.

The Brain Regions for Social Behavior Are Connected with the Visual System of Zebrafish

These nerve cells connect the visual system of the zebrafish to other brain regions that are active during social behavior. Researchers thus discovered the visual triggers of this brain activation.

When researchers were able to inhibit newly found neurons, zebrafish larvae lost interest in both conspecifics and moving dots and no longer followed them around. Thus, it was proven that these neurons regulate social approach and affiliation in zebrafish.

These findings increased our understanding of the brain region whose activation provides the basic “glue” for the connection of two zebrafish. These small-scale interactions collectively form shoals of fish. And all this social behavior is governed by neural networks of this kind.

What about human social behavior?

Humans also have a thalamus, and their numerous neural processes have been conserved throughout evolution. The role of these regions in people’s social behavior has yet to be investigated.

Researchers Found More Hormones of Love

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Romantic love has an adaptive function in human evolution. It increases reproductive success in sexual relations between men and women through the hormone of love. The evolution of animal and human bonding results in the evolution of love hormones.

When men and women are in passionate love, many psychophysiological and neuropsychological processes occur in their brains and bodies. They affect how their minds and behaviors function. In recent decades, researchers have revealed the important role that hormones plays in passionate love. They conducted studies on neuroimaging, biochemistry, and hormones (Hatfield & Rapson, 2009; Gangestad & Grebe, 2017; Sorokowski et al., 2019).

Hormones Play a Role in Romantic Love

These changes are especially pronounced when they are falling in love. Being close to a beloved partner elicits strong romantic feelings and produces corresponding hormonal changes. The hormones cortisol, testosterone, oxytocin, prolactin, and estradiol engage in emotional and behavioral reactions associated with love feelings.

For example, men and women who are in romantic love have higher cortisol. The excited state of passionate arousal they experience when they fall in love causes the increased cortisol level. Other hormonal changes also facilitate pair bonding and commitment.

Some discoveries about the effects of various hormones on romantic love are consistent and well-known. Other findings are sometimes contradictory and need further research. A recent study indicated one more hormonal secret of love that is worthy of our attention (Sorokowski et al., 2019).

Does Love Increase a Woman’s Fertility?

Researchers from the University of Wrocław, Poland, conducted the study to show that love produces adaptive hormonal changes in the female body. These changes increase a woman’s fertility when she is in love (Sorokowski et al., 2019).

In their study, researchers measured the levels of several hormones in women in the early follicular phase of the menstrual cycle. They compared the blood serum levels of estradiol, cortisol, free testosterone, prolactin, luteinizing hormone, and follicle-stimulating hormone of those women who were at the beginning of passionate romantic relationships with those who were not in love.

Hormones of Love Involved in Experience of Emotion

Researchers reported that women in love have higher levels of gonadotropins and lower free testosterone levels compared to those who are not in love. At the same time, women in love have the same levels of cortisol, prolactin, and estradiol. Researchers also revealed that the estradiol-to-testosterone ratio is higher in women in love in comparison with women who are not in love. Researchers suggest possible explanations for these results based on their associations with other confounding factors they identified in their study. They admit that some of the results aren’t completely convincing and that more research needs to be done.

Here Is One More Hormone of Love

Nevertheless, this study seems about to crack one more hormonal secret of romantic love. It turned out that the experience of falling in love plays an adaptive function. It increases the likelihood that the romantic couple will conceive offspring in their sexual relations. This discovery explains why men and women across the world tend to experience not only sexual attraction but also love. Heterosexual love is an important adaptive psychological mechanism that increases women’s physiological ability to conceive a child.

How “Romantic Love” Conquered Literary Fiction

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The article reviews the findings of recent studies on how the idea of romantic love appears in literary fiction in many cultures across the world.

What the Early Scholars of Love Believed

Researchers of literary history once believed romantic love was a European creation rooted in Medieval poems and songs of “courtly love” and Early Modern romantic literature. The historians thought that these European romantic ideas, stories, and descriptions spread further to other cultures across the world. It turned out they were wrong in their Western culture-centered views.

“Romantic Love” Emerged in Literary Fiction Across the World

Researchers, however, learned that the Southern French culture of the 12–13th centuries, a presumable “inventor” of romantic love, was substantially influenced by the Arabic and Iberian cultural conceptions of love of that and previous times. Recent studies have demonstrated that in the Indian, Arabic, Persian, Chinese, and Japanese cultures, romantic love evolved culturally independently of each other. They developed their own yet largely comparable literary traditions.

Investigations of the cultural history of numerous societies have shown that romantic love has been enduring in many places and eras (see for review, Baumard, Huillery, Hyafil, et al., 2022; Jankowiak and Fischer, 1992; Karandashev, 2017).

This Is How Romantic Love Ideas and Plots Came in Literary Fiction

But how did romantic love ideas and plots first enter literary fiction, and how did they spread culturally?

Romantic elements in European and Asian literary fiction have grown significantly over the current millennium across many societies and cultures. The themes and narratives of love appeared first in Classical India, Ancient China, Ancient Greece, and Ancient Rome. However, the substantial increase in love topics happened much later in cultural history. When, where, and how did this occur?

A recent large-scale study completed by French and Spanish researchers confirmed the cross-cultural universality of romantic love ideas. Nicolas Baumard, Elise Huillery, Alexandre Hyafil, and their colleagues compiled a comprehensive database of ancient literary fiction spanning the Middle Bronze Age to the Early Modern period. They compiled literary data for 77 periods spanning 3,800 years of human history and 19 geographical regions around the world. The researchers discovered that socioeconomic, ecological, and cultural factors contributed to the literary proliferation of romantic love (Baumard et al., 2022).

Economic Factors that Affected Literary Interest in Romantic Love

At first, one may think that the ideas of love are on another plane than the economic life of human existence. Romantic love is idealistic, while the economy is materialistic. So, they seem not to be closely related.

However, the researchers found that higher incidences and a larger prevalence of love themes in narrative fiction strongly correlate with regional variations in economic development across societies in the past. The higher levels of economic development in these societies lead to an increased abundance of romantic love literature in their cultures.

I noted elsewhere how economic development significantly contributed to the boost in interest and proliferation of romantic love in literary fiction in the past centuries of cultural history.

Growth in economic development played a significant role in the literary evolution of romantic love. It was conducive to the rise and flourishing of love fiction in Western Europe during the Central Medieval period of 1000–1300 years (Baumard et al., 2022).

However, literary themes, plots, and narratives of “romantic love” emerged and evolved in many world cultures independently of one another. That upsurge occurred at roughly the same historic periods when their societies saw growth in their population, urbanization, and economic growth (Baumard et al., 2022).

What about the Cultural Diffusion of Romantic Love?

“Cultural diffusion” is one of the main mechanisms explaining the spread and blending of cultural ideas, beliefs, artifacts, and practices across various cultures. Many people who study literature think that the spread of ideas from other cultures caused the growth of romantic literature.

So, what about the cultural diffusion of romantic love themes, plots, and narratives? For example, historians of literature considered medieval European “courtly love” as the outcome of social contacts with Arabic courtly culture and possibly the cultural rediscovery of Roman and Greek literature. In particular, some scholars believe that the love story of Tristan and Iseult might have its origins in unknown archaic Celtic fiction, a Welsh fable, an Irish tale, or the Persian love story of Vis o Rāmin.

Was Cultural Diffusion Frequent and Significant in Literary Love Fiction?

Researchers in literary history (Baumard et al., 2022) compiled an enormous collection of romantic love fiction across many cultures. They ran statistical modeling on their data set to explore the role of several factors in the evolution of love in history. When they compared the explanatory power of economic development and cultural diffusion, they discovered that despite the evidence that European and Asian societies had contact with each other, “their cultural diffusion played a minor role in explaining the concomitant rise of love.” (Baumard et al., 2022, p. 507).

Many old oral folklore tales of the 12th century were enriched with romantic themes, plots, and narratives to meet the growing interest in romantic stories in affluent societies in Western Europe.

As researchers demonstrated (Baumard et al., 2022), literary cultures varied across historical periods between romantic and non-romantic values in accordance with the economic standing of their societies.

The Examples of Romantic Love in Greek and Russian Literary History

Here is the Greek example,

“Greek, the lengthiest literary culture of our sample, started as non-romantic during the Archaic period, became more romantic during the Classical and Roman periods, then switched back to lower levels of love during the early medieval period and finally developed a new romantic culture during the Central Middle Age and the Early Modern period.”

(Baumard et al., 2022, p. 511).

Here is another example of romantic love, this time from Russian literary culture,

“The Russian culture quickly developed a highly romantic literary tradition during its economic take-off in the eighteenth century, despite a long tradition of non-romantic works. This suggests that the transmission of earlier works (that is, tales, epics) is less important in explaining the eighteenth-century level of love than the ecology of eighteenth-century Russia (that is, higher economic development).”

(Baumard et al., 2022, p. 511).