Congratulations, you’re swooning over your new sweetie. Maybe you haven’t taken to movie-star-style couch-jumping and love declarations, but your honey is all you can think and talk about. You swear you’re deeply in love. Friends, however, may say, “You’re just in lust.” Who’s right?
Researchers have been puzzling over the answer to that question, and have recently found evidence that shows people can distinguish between true romance and sexual attraction.
For the study, scientists performed MRI’s on men and women as they looked upon photos of the person they were in love with and photos of acquaintances, both attractive and less attractive.
Results showed that the two sets of photos affected the brain differently: Photos of loved ones triggered more activity on the right side of the brain (an area associated with romantic emotions) than did the other photos; photos of attractive people triggered more activity on the left side of the brain (a hotbed for sexual urges) than the photos of subjects’ beloveds.
What this suggests, says study author Arthur Aron, Ph.D., a professor of psychology at the State University of New York-Stony Brook, is that the emotions of love and lust are more distinct than we think, and that people can discriminate between the two. So can you prove your love to your sweetie (and your cynical friends) by getting a brain scan? “Not without advanced equipment and about twenty- to thirty-thousand dollars,” says Dr. Aron. Looks like flowers, chocolate, and “I love you” will have to do for a little while longer.
…Jessica Brown
courtesy of Match.com
because love doesn’t come with instruction
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