• Question: love is an emotions and emotions aren't a scientific subject therefore as scientists do you think true love is a myth or real

    Asked by danny99 to Helen, Jenni, Mark, Martin, Stu on 23 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Jenni Tilley

      Jenni Tilley answered on 21 Jun 2011:

      I think *true* love is a myth, but I believe in love – there are chemicals involved and everything. Plus it’s an evolutionary advantage because it makes mummies look after their babies.

    • Photo: Mark Burnley

      Mark Burnley answered on 21 Jun 2011:

      Love is an emotion, and emotions are something experienced by us because we are conscious beings. I’d say that puts emotions and love firmly in the realm of scientific study. I think love evolved in humans as a means of bonding so that we can spend several years bringing up children. I’m not sure what true love is or how it differs from “full fat” love, so I’ll stop there.

    • Photo: Helen O'Connor

      Helen O'Connor answered on 23 Jun 2011:

      In psychology, we do study emotions scientficially: we are interested in how what someone feels can affect how they act (so when we feel angry, we behave in a certain way, when we love, we act in a certain way etc). We are also interested in what happens physically to cause these feelings (for example, what chemicals in the brain are released that make us feel a certain way).

      “True” love is hard to define, and it might even be more of a spiritual question than a scientific one. Scientists usually believe that humans are quite selfish and our priority is to do things that make ourselves feel better: so if we ‘love’ someone, it is because that gives us some benefit.

Comments