From The Notebook to Titanic, many classic romantic movies tell of a single, everlasting love. But a new study suggests that in real life, "He/She alone" should be replaced with "They both."
Experts at the Kinsey Institute found that most people fall in love twice in their lifetime. The study involved over 10,000 people self-reporting their experiences with "passionate love."
The results showed that about a third of participants had fallen in love twice, while 11% said they had experienced love four or more times. However, for 14% of respondents, the news was less happy, as they had never experienced passionate love.
“People talk a lot about falling in love, but this is the first study to ask exactly how many times it happens in a lifetime,” said Dr. Amanda Gesselman, lead author of the study. “For most people, passionate love only happens a few times in a lifetime.”
From songs to television programs, passionate falling in love has been documented for centuries, but until now, exactly how often it is experienced has remained a mystery.
The study, published in Interpersona, states: "If passionate love is a fundamental element of romantic development, positively influencing mental and physical well-being, it is important to understand who experiences it and how often."
To find out, researchers interviewed 10,036 single adults, ages 18 to 99. The question was: “How many times in your life have you fallen passionately in love?”
The results showed: 14.2% had never fallen in love, 27.8% once, 30.3% twice, 16.8% three times and 10.9% four times or more. Age was positively associated with the number of passionate love experiences: older participants reported slightly more experiences than younger ones.
The study suggests that, contrary to popular belief, most people do not have a single “soul mate.” They find several people to love throughout their lives.
“The finding that most participants experienced passionate love an average of two times suggests that passionate love is common – experienced at least once by most – but occurs rarely at the individual level,” the researchers added. “These results underscore the episodic and often elusive nature of passionate love.”
This study comes shortly after research that revealed the main factors that contribute to remaining single. According to experts from the University of Zurich, people with a higher level of education, those who live with their parents or men are more likely to remain single.
"Our results show that socio-demographic factors, such as education, and psychological characteristics, such as current well-being, help to predict who will enter a romantic relationship and who will not," said co-author Michael Krämer. /GazetaExpress/
t7 live
