What is Love?

I've been doing a lot of extensive research to try and answer the same question that was asked in the popular Haddaway song that got stuck in your head in the 80s: What is love? Psychologically, it's a very complicated question, but scientifically it's actually quite simple. There are two main types of love: impersonal love and interpersonal love. Impersonal love is the love of an object, a principle, or a goal to which you are committed or is of great value to you. On the other hand, interpersonal love is love between human beings, whether they be friends, lovers, or family members. Most psychologists agree that love is a cognitive and social phenomenon.

Something that I came across in my research and found very interesting was Robert Sternberg's Triangular Theory. Robert Sternberg is a psychologist who developed the Triangular Theory as a way of explaining the three ingredients of love: intimacy, commitment, and passion. Intimacy is when humans share secrets, confidences, and various details of their personal lives. Usually intimacy happens between friends or lovers. Commitment is the expectation that the relationship is permanent. This happens with all serious relationships. Passion is sexual attraction, which is the most common type of "love". Sternberg's theory states that all types of love are different combinations of these three things, and that the strongest romantic relationships have all three of these things.

You may have heard the common phrase, "Opposites attract." Well, there's actually a scientific basis behind that saying and it comes from Coulomb's law. Coulomb's law says that some people's brains have positive charges and some have negative charges. Positive and negative charges attract, which is where we got the phrase, "Opposites attract." However, that's not necessarily true for personalities. While you may fall for someone who is different then you, it's hard to get along with someone who is the exact opposite of you.

I hope this provided some helpful insight in the science of love!