Is 'love at first sight' an illusion created by desire?
Love at first sight, where two strangers fall in love at first sight, is one of those romantic encounters that makes you feel like you're destined. Live Science, a scientific news site, has summarized the views of experts on whether such love at first sight is true ``love'' or just ``desire''.
Is love at first sight real? | Live Science
In a 2016 study using neuroendocrinology as a clue to answer the question of what love is in the first place, a researcher said, ``Love is classified into three categories: desire, fascination, and attachment. We are reinforcing each other,” he argued. According to the authors of the paper, although these three are interrelated, they are processed as separate processes in the brain.
Specifically, while hormones such as testosterone and estrogen, which are regulated by the amygdala in the brain, are involved in ``desire'', ``fascination'' that attracts others plays an important role in reward and pleasure. determined by the nucleus accumbens and the ventral tegmental area. Also, when a person is attracted to someone, neurotransmitters such as dopamine, noradrenaline, and cortisol are at work, and when a person feels 'attachment', hormones such as oxytocin and pathopressin are working predominantly. .
Of the three types of love, lust may be the one that dominates the brain at first sight, says Eric Leiden, Ph.D. in clinical psychology at The Bath Couples Therapy Practice in the UK. To do. He told Live Science, 'The feeling of being nice and intoxicated is short-lived, and if you're looking for a long-term partner, love at first sight can be an unreliable signal that you've found the right person. It has more to do with physical attraction and desire than a long-lasting romantic relationship.'
Leiden thinks of love as, ``At the same time that euphoria and obsessive thoughts fill the mind, the body secretes dopamine, which is one of the happiness hormones, and oxytocin, which is sometimes called the love hormone. ” state. If we apply this to the research on the endocrine system mentioned above, we can say that 'attachment' is the closest to true love among the three types of 'desire, fascination, and attachment.'
Leiden isn't the only one who thinks love takes time to develop. Deborah Lee, a medical writer for the online clinic Dr Fox Online Pharmacy, said, ``Some people say that true love grows at first sight, but as a psychologist, I have an objection. Or because it develops over time as you learn to love your skills.True love is more than just sexual attraction and passion.'
According to Lee, the early stages of love are similar to addiction, and the parts of the brain that are activated when love begins are the same parts of the brain that are addicted to cocaine.
Chinese researchers, who discussed similarities between romantic love and addiction in a 2016 study , also found in their paper, ``When people in love are infatuated with each other, they go crazy. experience depression with feelings of impending euphoria, compulsive or impulsive behavior, live in a distorted reality, and are often dependent on others. It softens as the relationship matures, so it's different from drug addiction in the later stages of a relationship.'
If love at first sight seems to be the beginning, it could be the way your brain processes memories. According to a study published in 2012, people's memories change depending on how they feel when they recall them. Therefore, when a person who loves their partner thinks back on how they met, it seems as if they liked it from the beginning, even though it didn't bother them that much at the time.
In addition to these memory distortions, perceptions of partners are also affected by a phenomenon called 'positive illusions'. A 2018 study that delved into the phenomenon of positively viewing intimate partners found that the happiest couples were those who looked at each other through ``rose-colored glasses''. When the other person appears positive in such a phenomenon, there will be less suspicion and conflict, and greater relationship satisfaction. Plus, the 'positive illusion' can make you feel like you've been in love from the first day you met, when in fact it took you longer to get close.
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