- One wrote an essay about a situation where they felt the most love for their partner.
- The second group wrote about a time they felt the most sexual desire for their partner.
- The third group wrote about a subject of their own choice.
Compared to the control group (who wrote about their own topic), people writing about love were 6 times less likely to think about the attractive person, and people writing about sexual desire for their partner were 4 times less likely.
The researchers also asked the students to describe the photo “hottie” after writing their essays. The love essay writers remembered only about 2/3 the number of attractive features as the other groups.
The researchers concluded that reflecting on the love you have for one person effectively filters out temptation for another.
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Gonzaga, G., Haselton, M. G., Smurda, J., Davies, M. S., & Poore, J. C. (2008). Love, desire, and the suppression of thoughts of romantic alternatives. Evolution and Human Behavior.
8 comments:
hmmm very interesting! great blog!
Just wanted to say thanks for your tips earlier on my blog. Your looks great, nice that you have something more unique!
i definitely agree. i've been with my husband since i was 15-there will always be attractive folks out there, but at the very core of what keeps this thing together is a deep-rooted love. i've yet to come across another human (other than our offspring)who can incite the flurry of 'feel good' emotions he can.
I just added you to my list of interesting blogs. I love evolutionary psychology. So many behaviours can be explained that way. More people should realise this.
That's interesting and also good news if you are in a goodrelationship. you will be less tempted to stray!
very interesting!
i would never have guessed those results (and we just finished learning about love and affection!). Interesting research and thanks for keeping me up-to-date with my psychology!
From your fellow Psych person :)
PS My blog used to be with Wordpress but now im on blogger :)
how well "lovely"!
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