How to Know if You Are in Love According to Science
How do you know if you’re in love? Do you know it when you have butterflies in your stomach? Can you feel it when you see the person you can’t stop thinking about? Do you find yourself unable to sleep at night?
All these things can be subjective and cannot be clear indications that you’re in love. But the researchers from the University of Granada in Spain have found a way to determine if someone’s in love or not objectively.
Using a thermographic camera, they can determine if someone’s bitten by the love bug by observing the changes in temperature of different parts of his/her body.
If you were in love, a temperature increase of 2 degrees Celsius would be observed in the cheeks, nose, forehead and hands. 60 people, who just entered a new relationship, took part in the study.
Their dominant (writing) hands were submerged in freezing water for two minutes while they look at pictures of their partners. After the activity, thermal images of their hands were taken. Those who looked at pictures of their friends were not observed to have an increase in temperature.
This team of researchers also want the technology to be integrated in cellphones. So thermal imaging in cellphones can make our lives easier to detect if the person we love feels the same way about us.
What exactly is love?
Ask a behavioural psychologist, a cognitive psychologist or even a neurobiologist and they’ll likely tell you that, sorry, there’s no one simple answer.
Many scientists examine love through the framework put forward by Dr Helen Fisher, a biological anthropologist. She proposed that three types of love form ‘romantic love’.
The first of these is lust. It’s motivated by sex hormones like oestrogen and testosterone that are swiftly followed by attraction. In this second stage of attraction or infatuation, researchers have measured increases in dopamine and noradrenaline which we know as ‘feel-good chemicals’.
Along with greater levels of these happiness hormones, we often see a decrease in serotonin. Low levels of serotonin are associated with obsessive mental states.
Following infatuation, the third and final stage in this framework is attachment. This moves you from a place of arousal to a state of calm and comfort in your loving relationship. Think of it as chilling on the couch de-stressing from work, says Langeslag.
