5 Scientific Facts About Love

Endearing, painful, powerful, sweet, dreadful, magical... what other adjectives can you use to describe the feeling humanity cannot do without? You guessed right, I'm talking of love. Irrespective of your thoughts about romantic love, here are some science-backed facts about it.

1. Falling in love makes you less productive. According to researcher Henk van Steenbergen, "high levels of passionate love of individuals in the early stage of a romantic relationship are associated with reduced cognitive control." As a result of being consumed by thoughts of one's love interest, one becomes less able to concentrate and perform tasks efficiently. "It could be that the obsessive nature of passionate love imposes important constraints on performing well in tasks that require self-control," added Steenbergen. This means your brain will be unable to focus on other things if it's consumed by thoughts of love.

2. Falling in love is chemically addictive, as addicting as consuming cocaine or nicotine. Both affect the brain in similar ways, triggering a similar sensation of euphoria. "Intense passionate love uses the same system in the brain that gets activated when a person is addicted to drugs," explains Arthur Aron, a psychologist at the State University of New York at Stony Brook.

3. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder - an anxiety disorder - and romantic love in the initial stages are very similar in nature. The low levels of serotonin - a neurotransmitter - a person develops after falling in love result in the obsessive-compulsive behaviors associated with infatuation.

4. Research shows that when seeking long-term relationships, men will choose a pretty face over a pretty body; and for short-term relationships, they will choose a pretty body over a pretty face. Jaime Confer, co-author of the revealing study, titled Attractiveness in Short-Term Versus Long-Term Mating Contexts says "Men's priorities shift depending on what they want in a mate, with facial features taking on more importance when a long-term relationship is the goal."

5. We tend to end up with people who look like us. Many people may have told you that you and your partner look like siblings. This goes a long way to tell you that what attracts us to a person is ourselves, the us we see in them. Tony Little, a research fellow at the University of Stirling in Scotland told USA Today, "When you have a face that looks more like you, you tend to trust it more and think it looks more cooperative."