Love
Navigating intimacy in a shifting world: decoding the complex chemistry and psychology of human connection. A comprehensive exploration of love in all its forms.
Everyday Love
When dating rewards indifference, nobody falls in love
Hookup culture told everyone to act unbothered. Bill-splitting became a political statement. Dating profiles turned into shopping lists. An Evie Magazine essay argues that modern romance lost its warmth because we traded vulnerability for performance, and both men and women came out emptier.
videoBeyond fairy-tale love: reclaiming realistic expectations in relationships
Why the end of the Disney glow can be the beginning of something deeper. The Myth we all inherited From…
videoLove your enemies: a buddhist guide to defeating anger, ego, and self-loathing
In their collaborative work Love Your Enemies: How to Break the Anger Habit & Be a Whole Lot Happier, Robert…
We create a false self in early life to meet external expectations and cope with childhood experiences – James Hollis
James Hollis explores the psychological and spiritual upheaval of midlife as a necessary and meaningful rite of passage. Drawing from…
Couples who never post about their love are happiest in UK survey
In a 2021 Shotkit survey of 2,000 UK adults, 73% of couples who never post about their relationship online rated it happy, against 32% of those posting three or more times a week. The poll was not peer reviewed.
Making It Last
Ten habits that reliably make people happier, with one that stands above the rest
Say things now to people you care about.
Spend time with parents and children.
Enjoy daily pleasures instead of waiting for something that may happen later.
Work in a job you love.
Choose your partner carefully.
Losing a mate lowers oxytocin and makes voles act depressed
Prairie voles separated from a bonded mate act depressed because a stress signal cuts brain oxytocin, a 2017 review by Bosch and Young reports. Oxytocin given into a reward area of the brain prevented this depression-like behavior.
Heidi Priebe says the love of your life can end and still matter
Thought Catalog writer Heidi Priebe argues that losing the love of your life does not cancel its meaning. Studies on beliefs about love and on growth after breakups support parts of that view.
Brides with 10 or more partners had a 33% five-year divorce rate
In a 2016 analysis of U.S. survey data, women who married in the 2000s after 10 or more sex partners had a 33% five-year divorce rate, against 6% for virgin brides.
Premarital cohabitation and divorce in women: number of partners is key
Research on premarital cohabitation and divorce finds the risk is not from living with a future spouse, but from having multiple premarital partners.
Research Findings
Sarcasm sounds less polite than teasing, and men mind it less
In a 2024 video study of 288 US and UK adults, sarcastic replies were rated less polite than teasing, and men found sarcasm more polite than women did. The study judged strangers and did not measure couples.
videoHarmony is a lifelike robot designed to be a romantic companion
The launch of Harmony, the world’s first talking sex robot, brings a lifelike companion designed to simulate human-like interactions and companionship.
How relationship happiness changes from early love to old age
Relationship satisfaction tends to drop from age 20 to 40, hits its lowest point at 40, then goes up until about age 65. After that, it stays pretty stable.
Relationship satisfaction generally goes down in the early years of a relationship, especially in the first 10 years. Then it goes up until about 20 years, and then it might go down again.
The presence of children is associated with a lower mean level of relationship satisfaction.
Cheating risk often rises near year seven of marriage, then drops for women and can rise later for men
The popular idea of a 7 year itch has some support in research. Surveys suggest that both the wish to…
Nearly 1 in 4 young US women has tried an AI romantic partner
A 2025 national survey found that 23% of US women aged 18 to 30 and 10% of older women have chatted with an AI app built to act as a romantic partner, and that women users reported more depression and loneliness.
Writers in Britain, India and China praised only narrow waists
A 2007 study found that all 66 British descriptions of a woman's waist written from 1500 to 1799 praised a narrow one, as did ancient Indian and Chinese poems. It counted texts and did not test men's choices.