Some people claim that “love at first sight” doesn’t exist – but studies show the opposite. And it’s not at all unlikely that it will catch you in life.
Opinions are divided, especially when it comes to “love at first sight”. Some say it’s the only true love, others think it’s a pipe dream. The fact is, according to researchers, there is no such thing as true love at first sight. What we think they are is just a lightning bolt of hormonal cocktail.
People often choose their potential partner at first sight, or rather the first smell. Biochemistry makes us attractive to people who have very different DNA compared to our own. This ensures that humanity is kept as healthy as possible and reduces the risk of malformations. In many cases, our attraction to someone else is therefore not controllable.
However, when we can’t smell someone because they’re across the room or because they’re just suggested to us in the form of a picture on Tinder and Bumble, our sex drive takes over. The so-called “love at first sight” is rather the sexual attraction that someone exerts on us.
This was confirmed by research by four Dutch psychologists. In 2017, they tested how people react to potential strangers in three different situations, online, in a laboratory and at a dating event. The four researchers came to the conclusion that physical attraction in particular determines “love at first sight”.
According to a study by the market and opinion research institute YouGov from 2021, around 39 percent of German men and around 25 percent of women have fallen in love at first sight. In the USA, too, it was concluded that this phenomenon happens more often to men than to women.
This is what “love at first sight” feels like:
- A feeling of “coming home”
- An instant, soulmate connection
- Feel like the only two people in the room
- An unusual chemistry that they have never felt before
The hormonal balance often triggers physical reactions, such as:
- Sweat
- butterflies in the stomach
- Enormous euphoria
- Inability to stop thinking about the other
- Searching for the other person in the room even when they are not there
- A magnetic attraction (emotional, physical, sexual)
Bottom Line: It’s hard for people who fall in love at first sight to tell whether they’ve fallen for sexual attraction or really fallen in love. Research on the topic of feeling love is still in its infancy and the feeling is very subjective. However, according to most researchers, the feeling of love has to develop in different areas of life.
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Source: Stern
I am an author and journalist who has worked in the entertainment industry for over a decade. I currently work as a news editor at a major news website, and my focus is on covering the latest trends in entertainment. I also write occasional pieces for other outlets, and have authored two books about the entertainment industry.
