A research team from Kinsey Institutefrom Indiana University, quantified how often the passionate love knocks on the door of American adults. The results indicated that people experience this feeling an average of twice in his life.
The research, published in the journal interpersonalanalyzed data from 10,036 single adults between 18 and 99 years old. This population group allowed reflection on romantic stories without the biases of a current relationship.
The study produced a revealing figure about the absence of this link in a part of society. A 14.2 percent of the participants stated that they never felt passionate love in your life.
Passionate love has characteristics such as elevated physiological arousal and a intense longing by the other person. The researchers cite the Sternberg Triangular Theory to define passion as an “internal motivation that drives romance, physical attraction, and sexual connection.”
Men reported a slightly higher number of experiences compared to women. While they reach an average of 2.21 experiencesthey record 1.93 cases.
The report highlighted a specific difference under the magnifying glass of sexual orientation. The heterosexual men reported more experiences of passionate love than heterosexual women.
The age factor also showed a positive association with the frequency of these love events. The older adults They accumulate more episodes because they had more opportunities to fall in love over a longer life.
Sexual diversity and love: a field of equality
Dr. Amanda N. Gesselmanlead author, noted that these findings have practical applications in relationship science. «People talk about falling in love all the time, but this is the first study to actually ask how many times that happens over the course of a lifetime,» he said in a statement. Kinsey Institute statement.
The team maintained that these data serve to validate romantic trajectories diverse and to reduce the stigma about inexperience in love.
Regarding sexual minorities, there were no significant differences between gay, lesbian or bisexual people. The study suggests that the social acceptance current perhaps equalizes the opportunities to feel passion in these groups.
The experts clarified that passion is a transient state typical of the beginning of emotional ties. Over time, this feeling usually transforms into companionate love, which has deep emotional closeness but lacks the initial obsessive longing.
The research concludes that Passionate love is common but rare on an individual level. These results invite professionals to normalize the idea that lack of experience in this area «is not something intrinsically unusual or pathological.»
«Our results demonstrate that both sociodemographic factors such as education and psychological characteristics such as current well-being help predict who will initiate a romantic relationship and who will not,» explained the co-lead author. Michael Kramer.
