Romance + Attraction + Oxytocin = Love

Can science tell us why we fall, and stay, in love?

June 15, 2009|Judy Foreman

(Page 3 of 3)

Fisher, the Rutgers anthropologist, who consults for the dating websites Match.com and Chemistry.com, thinks so.

She believes that certain personality types correspond to the preponderance and ratios of specific chemicals in the body; her team is now examining blood, urine, and saliva samples to test her theory.

In a study that involved 28,000 clients using the Chemistry.com dating site, Fisher built personality profiles based on people's answers to a long questionnaire, then sorted them into different "types" and followed their dating experiences to see which types were attracted to which other types.

Creative, risk-taking personalities, which she calls "explorers," may have more active dopamine systems, as well as more activity of another brain chemical, norepinephrine, she says. She found that "explorers" are drawn to other "explorers." People she calls "builders," conventional, calm, conscientious folks, may have more active serotonin and may also be drawn to other "builders."

By contrast, Hillary Clinton types - "directors" - who are analytical and tough-minded, may be high in testosterone and regularly drawn to their opposites, the "negotiators" like Bill Clinton, who may be fueled by estrogen and oxytocin, Fisher says.

Whether this love chemistry will pan out in the new research is still an open question. In the meantime, remember those prairie voles - they get what Fisher calls "life's greatest prize - an enduring mate and partner."

Judy Foreman can be reached at judyforeman@myhealthsense.com.

READER COMMENTS »

View reader comments » Comment on this story »