Albert Einstein, the famous physicist of the twentieth century once said that “Gravity cannot be held responsible for people falling in love.” So why do people fall in love? Psychologists have shown it takes between 90 seconds and 4 minutes to decide if you fancy someone. According to the Science of Love, Love is a natural plan to keep ourselves reproducing and away from extinction. However other scientists pin love to that first attraction or the so-called love at first sight. Robert Kurzban, a University of Pennsylvania psychology professor: It’s her body mass index. Then, when she turns around, it’s her facial symmetry. BMI is the proportion of the body mass to the body structure. In Africa, plump women are said to run the show while in the west it is tiny ‘model’ size that is in vogue. Studies suggest women are more attracted to men with symmetrical features, and noticed correlations between symmetry and other variables typically associated with masculinity, such as greater height, broader shoulders, and smaller hip-to-waist ratios. Devendra Singh, an evolutionary psychologist at the University of Texas, thinks it is all about her waist-to-hip ratio. He thinks men are looking for fertility, health and youthfulness, traits that mean she’ll produce good babies. There’s even some science that says a woman’s face becomes more attractive when she ovulates. Women meanwhile are looking for signs of virility, strength, good health and a good provider. The bad news is that men fall in love faster than women because they are more visual than the fairer sex. Straight after that comes the addiction part. Men start avoiding their beer buddies because ‘something has come up.’ Meanwhile women start breaking all the girls’ club rules of ‘all men are dogs.” Both begin to idealize each other. They become blind to each other’s faults and begin to compare each other to stuff like the moon, the sun and the ocean. Scientists think this is when the chemicals begin to enter into their brains. They begin to feel good. They flush. They’re happy and excited. Good thing is this when the real bonding occurs, so that five years later when she is no longer as hot as she used to be and when the guys’ eyes are wandering over interesting waist to hip ratios around town, their heads tell them, ‘it’s just the waist-to-hip ratio, but the truth is you cannot live without that woman you will find home tonight. It’s done’. Helen Fisher of Rutgers University has proposed 3 stages of love – lust, attraction and attachment. Lust is driven by the sex hormones testosterone and oestrogen – in both men and women. Attraction is the amazing time when you are truly love-struck and can think of little else courtesy of three chemicals; adrenaline, dopamine and serotonin. Finally, Attachment is the bond that keeps couples together long enough for them to have and raise children. Scientists think there might be two major hormones involved in this feeling of attachment; oxytocin – the cuddle hormone and vasopressin. The goon news is you don’t have to cram those names, because they will not warn you when they are acting on you. The bad news is love might after all just be another scientific reaction, not the most powerful force in the world that changed your live forever. Whatever the case, it does not really matter, whether you like it or not, you are already hooked! This Sunday, please don’t think about hormones! kelviod@yahoo.com
