We've all been there, I'm sure. You know, that place where weak knees, sweaty palms, an irregular heartbeat, and a flip-floppy stomach are all the disturbing physical side effects of an arguably good thing: Love. (On a side note, some of us may wish our hearts weren't as flip-floppy as our stomachs... but that's a topic for another day entirely.)
Well, just in case you thought you had some control over falling in love, staying in love, or choosing the person you do either with... guess again.
Here is your Valentine's Day dose of science:
- This study published in TIME suggests that women are more likely to be attracted to the smell of a man who is genetically similar to their father. (Gross, I know - Freud is giving someone a high five as I type this.) Basically, I guess, at a very primal and subconcious level, females don't want to risk losing desirable genetic traits by mating with someone who is a complete shot in the dark, genetically speaking. Read more here.
- It turns out that what drives us to fall in love, stay in love, and crave being in love after a break-up is dopamine. Hence that high feeling of being in love and, subsequently, the craving to fall back in love after a break-up - it's like withdrawal.
- And, finally, though I don't believe it entirely because my very affectionate grandmother was German, a new book called The Science of Kissing notes that though the Germans rarely kiss, they have 30 words for "kissing" in their language, one of which being nachkussen, meaning a kiss to make up for those that have yet to occur.
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