Is love at first sight actually LUST at first sight?
Did you meet someone and felt that you have found ‘the one’? Or, the person made you go weak in the knees the moment you saw him and you fell in ‘true love’? Well, many of us believe in the concept of love at first sight but according to a study done on this subject, it is generally infatuation in most of the cases.
The study
In a study published in the Journal of International Association for Relationship Research, the researchers analysed 500 dating encounters of 200 participants in their mid-twenties.
The three stages of this research
This study was divided into three stages— an online survey, a laboratory study and three dating encounters lasting not more than 90 minutes.
The next step
The participants who went on a date were asked whether they experienced love at first sight (LAFS) or not and did they get physically attracted towards their counterpart. The researchers also tried to analyse and measure the ‘love components’ including passion, intimacy and commitment that helped to determine the quality of a relationship.
Did participants witness LAFS?
As per the statistics, LAFS was experienced 49 times by 32 participants and the key love components, especially intimacy and commitment, were missing in these romantic pairings. However, these participants witnessed high levels of physical attraction.
The conclusion
The research concluded love at first sight or LAFS is nothing but ‘a strong initial attraction’ (basically lust) most of the times.
Are men more prone to LAFS?
60 per cent of the participants of this study were women, but a majority of LAFS instances were reported by men. Also, the study states “none of the instances of LAFS was reciprocal”. In simpler words, all the participants, who felt LAFS, did not receive a similar, positive response from their counterpart.
Why this study makes sense
Well, relationships require continuous and consistent efforts from both the partners to make it work and it takes time to build a strong foundation. You might feel attracted towards someone the moment you meet him or her, but it takes time to understand your partner, build intimacy, strike a rapport, and commit to that relationship.
(All images used here are representational)
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