(no subject)

[watertank]

Drawing on recent claims in the study of relationships, attachment, and emotion, the authors hypothesized that romantic love serves a commitment-related function and sexual desire a reproduction-related function.
...we define romantic love as a motivational state associated with feelings of attachment and the inclination to seek commitment with one partner, and we define sexual desire as a motivational state that leads the individual to seek opportunities for sexual activity.

Is there evidence that differentiates brief occurrences of romantic love from those of sexual desire? To our knowledge, the answer is no.

Romantic Love and Sexual Desire in Close Relationships. Gian C.Gonzaga, et al. Emotion. Vol 6. No. 2, 163–179.

Comments

[watertank.livejournal.com]

=== on a somewhat related issue:

arousal leads to activation of dominant behaviors ( zajonc, et al.). it is also known that men act "stupid" in the presence of a beautiful woman. is it possible that these phenomena are related?
it would be interesting to speculate on it with some examples from games and other performances.

on the other hand, love is an attachment related state. it seems to correlate with commitment. is it opposite to arousal? if yes, then we can speculate that presence of a loved one in the audience may not lead to stellar performance on standard tasks. but it might work for complex situations.

Should we send people in love on difficult missions. It would be interesting to describe a hypthetical love triangle scenario: love/lust/complexity/challenge.