So do you believe in love at first sight? Some swear it is possible, some say it’s totally impossible and that we’re merely confusing love with lust.
We’ve all got friends who claimed they caught sight of their partners in a bar or across the office and that they felt some sort of thunderbolt and “just knew” it was meant to be. Or something like that…so what’s the deal?
Well, a new study has claimed that there IS such a thing as love at first sight and it’s all in the eyes. The research carried out by University of Chicago found a person’s gaze alters depending on whether the emotional feelings of love or lust was on their brain at the time.
The study, published in the journal Psychological Science, concluded that if someone concentrated on a stranger’s face they were thinking about romance but on their body if he or she was feeling sexually attracted to that person, thereby determining whether it was love or lust. This judgement can apparently occur in as little as half a second, producing different gaze patterns.
The study asked male and female students from the University of Geneva to view black and white photographs of strangers they had never met. In the first part of the study, the participants saw photos of young, adult heterosexual couples who were looking at or interacting with each other. In the second part, they looked at pictures of attractive individuals of the opposite sex who were looking directly at the camera. In both experiments the men and women taking part were asked to decide as quickly as possible whether they felt each photograph or the people in the photograph as showing feelings of sexual desire or romantic love.
The team analysed eye movements and saw patterns in how subjects experienced feelings of romantic love or sexual desire. In each case the viewers fixated on either faces, or on the bodies depending on whether the subjects reported feeling sexual desire or romantic love.
Lead author Stephanie Cacioppo said: “Although little is currently known about the science of love at first sight or how people fall in love, these patterns of response provide the first clues regarding how automatic attentional processes, such as eye gaze, may differentiate feelings of love from feelings of desire toward strangers.”
Cacioppo has also previously identified that different parts of the brain are activated by both love and lust.
Good news for the romantics amongst us, eh? But what do you make of this study? Do you believe in love at first sight?
Us? I guess it depends on what we think constitutes love..a physical attraction or a deep emotion you can only feel when you really get to know a partner well?
We’d love to hear your thoughts @lovestruck (where love can ‘strike’ at any time…)
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