Two professors and social psychologists studying romantic relationships have set out on a new venture—creating a podcast for undergraduate students and the broader public focused on analyzing romantic films.
Teaching: The idea of love languages has become hugely popular and the term itself is pervasive in popular culture. This article provides teaching materials to encourage students to think critically about psychological science and popular self-help advice.
Podcast: In this episode of Under the Cortex, Amy C. Moors joins APS's Ludmila Nunes and demystifies common misconceptions about consensually nonmonogamous relationships.
Podcast: In this episode, psychological scientists Norman Li and Kenneth Tan illuminate how the mutual creation and enjoyment of humor serves as crucial markers of relationship well-being.
Podcast: Researchers found that relationship functioning starts to decline before infidelity happens. The lead author of this study, Olga Stavrova, explains these findings
New research suggests that young adults are instead quite rational when it comes to selecting potential sexual partners.
The scent of a romantic partner can improve your quality of sleep. This is true regardless of whether or not you are consciously aware that the scent is even present. [NEWS Feb. 13, 2020]
In a nod to Valentine's Day, researchers including APS Fellows Lisa Diamond, Eli Finkel, Nickola Overall, and Harry Reis share discoveries, challenges, and new directions in the study of love, desire, dating, and commitment.
Most of us see the connection between social and physical pain as a figurative one. But research is providing compelling evidence that the two types of pain share a common source.
An individual’s behaviors and attitudes in relation to uncommitted sexual relationships, even before the marriage, can contribute to marital satisfaction or dissolution.
Expert commentary from Paula Pietromonaco on close relationships during pandemics. [April 24, 2020]
Having a happy spouse can lead to a longer marriage, and now study results show that it’s associated with a longer life, too.
“What we as a society call ‘sex’ or ‘sexuality’—is different for women and men, rendering comparisons on this dimension faulty,” Conley and Klein wrote. With this premise, they reanalyzed a primary stereotype about gender and sex: women’s relatively lower interest.
Oxytocin levels may influence whether our partner's words sweep us off our feet or leave us wanting.
Using evaluative conditioning, a team of researchers has developed an unconventional intervention for helping a marriage maintain its spark: pictures of puppies and bunnies.
Longitudinal data suggest growing up in a warm family environment in childhood is associated with feeling more secure in romantic relationships in one’s 80s.
A study of newlywed couples indicates that partners experience a sexual ‘afterglow’ that lasts for up to two days and is linked with relationship quality over the long term.
Conventional wisdom holds that men and women approach romance differently. But new research suggests that love is important for well-being regardless of gender—and the differences that do exist may hint at the evolutionary basis of love.
Clinical psychologist Dominika Ochnik discusses her research into singlehood and well-being, mental health risks among young people, and her plans to study associations between urbanization and mental health.
Few psychologists realize that a potent risk factor for psychological disorders has been hiding in plain sight: people’s dissatisfaction with their current romantic relationship. Teach critical thinking about risk factors and relying on scientific evidence rather than intuition.
Marital satisfaction generally declines over time, but a brief writing intervention that helps spouses adopt a more objective outlook on marital conflict could help prevent couples from losing that loving feeling.
Newlyweds who have frequent sex don’t report greater relationship satisfaction than those who have less sex, but their automatic behavioral responses tell a different story.
Have you ever felt a special “spark” with someone—an intense bond with a potential partner, friend, or colleague? When individuals experience chemistry, they experience their interaction as something more than the sum of their separate contributions.
As our memories fade, we rely on our current assessment of a person to remember how we felt about them in the past, and this extends to some of the most central figures in our lives: our parents.
Psychological scientists and other researchers are exploring the ways that online communication is affecting the formation of friendships and romantic relationships.
How did attitudes about race, sexuality, age, or disability change in the last decade or so? Researchers examined more than 7 million implicit and explicit tests for an article published in Psychological Science. In this conversation, APS’s Ludmila Nunes speaks with APS member Tessa Charlesworth (Harvard University), the article’s lead author.
If there’s one sentiment shared by all great artists, from Shakespeare to Beyoncé, it’s this: Love is intense. Only in the last century have psychological scientists begun to regard passionate love as a viable research topic.
The timing of a person's first experience with sexual intercourse predicts the quality and stability of their romantic relationships in young adulthood.
People may find fictional villains surprisingly likeable when they share similarities with the viewer or reader. [April 22, 2020]
Researchers could predict speed daters' desire and desirability, but not which two people would 'click.'
The allure of smartphones, and their impact on our relationships, might be the result of our evolutionary history, researchers suggest.
Psychological scientists have found that people in positions of power may have be swayed into misperceiving sexual interest from subordinates.
People tend to project their own level of interest onto prospective partners. This reality seems to explain why men and women misperceive a partner’s sexual interest.
A comprehensive review of sexual orientation research aims to correct important misconceptions about the link between scientific findings and political agendas.
