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 The poll was not peer reviewed.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
Men tend to want many more sex partners than women do – Coolidge effect
Coolidge effect The Coolidge effect describes a phenomenon in which male animals (and potentially humans) experience renewed sexual interest when…
Kafka’s doll letters were never found, and the love quote is fake
The story of Kafka writing letters from a lost doll comes from Dora Diamant, his last partner. The letters have never been found, and the famous line about love returning in another way was added much later.