What are the different types of love? Since the middle of the 20th century, the typology of love has been an interesting topic of inquiry for many people and love researchers. Scholars of love have proposed many different types of love (Karandashev, 2022).

The love studies of the 1970s presented substantial advancements in our understanding of typological differences in the ways people love in romantic relationships (Lasswell & Lasswell, 1976; Lasswell & Lobsenz, 1980; Lee, 1973, 1976).

John Alan Lee (1933–2013), a Canadian social researcher, was among the key scholarly figures in love studies during the 1970s and 1980s.

John Alan Lee’s Contribution to the Studies of Love

The typology of love styles he proposed has substantially affected the love studies of the following decades (Karandashev, 2022). So, I could say he was a genius in the research of love who made major steps forward in our scholarly understanding of the various personality types associated with romantic love relationships.
Love researchers quickly adopted Lee’s (1973) categorization of love styles and widely used them in their studies in the following decades. Despite the popularity of Lee’s love styles in modern love research, contemporary publications often misrepresent his theory and method to some extent. They sometimes interpret the love styles in ways that deviate from Lee’s original conceptualization. So, this article rectifies these misinterpretations and presents Lee’s original theory and method.

Here Are the Core Points of Lee’s Theory of Love Styles

The theory describes the typology of individual ways men and women approach their love relationships. The theory embraces several phenomenological planes, including love ideas, beliefs, attitudes, personal identity in love, and love behavior. It is worth noting that the author noted

“a puzzling contradiction between the opinions which subjects said they held about true love and the behaviour they reported enacting when actually in a love relationship.”

(Lee, 1977, p. 176).

The six love styles in the typology represent the distinctive clusters of personal beliefs, attitudes, behaviors, and individual identity that men and women exhibit in love. These individual attributes are related to one another and are empirically distinguishable. They characterize the love attitudes, experiences, expressions, actions, and interactions of lovers. Lee denoted these love styles with conventional labels borrowed from the Greek and Latin lexicon of love.

A Comprehensive Description of the Six Love Styles by John Lee

Over the years of love research and publications, the original author’s descriptions of the six love styles he proposed have been abridged and reduced to some shortcuts. These truncated attributes have distorted, to some extent, Lee’s original meanings.

Lee’s descriptions of the six love styles can be summed up in the following ways:

1. Individuals with Eros love style are very interested in and fascinated by the physical appearance of a potential partner. The lovers perceive in a beloved the physical type concordant with their ideal image of the beautiful. Physical romantic attraction is a central tenet of their love.
2. Individuals with Ludus love style are playful and game-loving in their expressions and behaviors. They are pluralistic and permissive in their choices and actions. They often engage in multiple and relatively short-lived relationships. They tend to control their involvement in a relationship in an attempt to avoid the feeling of jealousy.
3. Individuals with Storge love style tend to avoid self-conscious passion, slowly disclosing their selves and gradually building up affection and companionship, with the expectation of long-term commitment.
4. Individuals with Mania love style are emotionally intense, very obsessive and preoccupied with the beloved, and therefore frequently jealous. They crave repeated reassurance of being loved.
5. Individuals with Agape love style feel it is their duty to love another with no expectation of reciprocity. Reasons, rather than emotions, guide their feelings and actions. They are caring, altruistic, and gentle.
6. Individuals with Pragma love style deliberately consider how suitable a potential beloved is for their prospective relationship. They look for a compatible match, taking into account the age, religion, education, vocation, and other demographic characteristics of a prospective partner.

(Reproduced from Karandashev, 2022).

Lee’s Thoughts on the Typological Structure of Love Styles 

The author proposed the hierarchical taxonomic structure of these love styles (Lee, 1973, 1976). So, he illustrated this love typology with a circle of love. A color system provided an illustrative analogy that would be meaningful to represent love styles as a vivid taxonomical system. The colors themselves have no special meanings. Their ability to mix with each other and overlap demonstrates their complex relationships.