8th of June, 2017
The Science of Love:
Romantic Love is an intense, pleasant and complicated feeling. What causes us to love someone? Love is a remarkable feeling but is an evolutionary way of keeping humanity together and reproducing.
There are several stages to falling and staying in love. The truth is neurotransmitters and chemicals play a bigger role in falling in love than we think.
The Initial Stage of falling in love involves physical lust and sexual desirability. The lust stage is driven by the hormones testosterone and estrogen. When we find someone attractive because our sex hormones drive us to find a sexual mate. Both of these hormones (testosterone and estrogen) are present in men and women and motivate us to pair up, have sex and reproduce.
The Attraction Stage of falling in love occurs when we begin dating and start having "fuzzy", warm feelings for that particular person. The positive feelings are usually attributed to the feeling of falling in love. The three primary hormones involved in this stage are adrenaline, dopamine and serotonin. This occurs in new relationships and these hormones are responsible for that feeling.
The Attachment Stage is the third stage where couples become bonded to each other. The hormone oxytocin is involved in this stage and causes a bonding feeling. Oxytocin is responsible for attachment, feeling of fondness, familiarity and love. Oxytocin also increases after couples have sex. Evolutionarily speaking, it is a good hormone because couples need to stay together to ensure their offspring is taken care of.