Some anthropologists' once thought that romance was a Western idea, developed in the Middle Ages. Non-Western societies, they thought, were too occupied with social and family relationships for romance. Today, scientists believe that romance has existed in human brains in all societies since prehistorica times. In one study, for example, men and women from Europe, Japan, and the Philippines were asked to fill out a survey to measure their experiences of passionate love. All three groups said that they felt passion with the same extreme intensity. But though romantic love may be universal, its cultural expression is not. To the Fulbe people of northern Cameroon, men who spend too much time with their wives are insulted and looked down on. Those who fall deeply in love are thought to have fallen under a dangerous spell. For the Fulbe, to be controlled by love is seen as shameful.
In India, marriages have traditionally been arranged, usually by the bride and groom's parents, but today love marriages appear to be on the rise, often in defiance of parents' wishes. The victory of romantic love is celebrated in Bollywood films. However, most Indians still believe arranged marriages are more likely to succeed than love marriages. In one survey of Indian college students, 76 percent said 30 they would marry someone with all the right qualities even if they weren't in love with the person. Marriage is considered too important a step to leave to chance .
Finding the Right Person Some psychiatrists such as Thomas Lewis from the University of California, hypothesize that romantic love is rooted in experiences of physical closeness in childhood-for example, how we felt in our mother's arms. These feelings of comfort and affection are written on our brain and as adults our constant inclination is to find them again. According to this theory, we love whom we love not so much because of the future we hope to build, but rather because of the past we hope to live again. The person who feels right" has a certain look, smell, sound does n or touch that activates very deep memories. her ch Evolutionary psychologists explain, however childr that survival skills are inherent in our choice of a mate. According to this hypothesis, we Is It are attracted to people who look healthy-for Accor example, a woman with a 70 percent waist cause to-hip ratio is attractive because she can likely Mara bear children successfully. A man with rugged Pisa i features probably has a strong immune system and therefore is more likely to give his partner 80 loves and f healthy children. becau On the other hand, perhaps our choice of a betw mate is a simple matter of following our noses. disor Claus Wedekind of the University of Lausanne in Switzerland conducted an interesting Psyo experiment with sweaty? T-shirts. He asked 49 of m women to smell T-shirts previously worn by a Swe variety of unidentified men. He then asked the 65 women to rate which T-shirts smelled the best Bio and which the worst.
He found that women preferred the smell of T-shirt worn by a man who was the most genetically different from her. This genetic zo difference means that it is likely that the man's immune system possesses something hers does not. By choosing him as the father of her children, she increases the chance that her children will be healthy. Is It All Just Chemicals? According to other researchers, love may be caused by chemicals in the body. Donatella Marazziti, a professor at the University of Pisa in Italy, has studied the biochemistrys of lovesickness.9 Having been in love twice herself and felt its overwhelming power, Marazziti became interested in exploring the similarities between love and obsessive-compulsive disorder(OCD).