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The Science of Love

Posted by michael on from the gonna-have-to-face-it-you're-addicted-to-love dept.

Xyde writes "Economist.com has a story just in time for Valentine's day called 'The Science of Love'. Presumably the difference between love and lust is little more than a bunch of chemicals, which can be controlled with injections (in voles anyway). Quite an interesting read."

29 of 315 comments (clear)

  1. No thank you! by Dutchmaan · · Score: 5, Funny

    I don't know about you.. but you won't catch me going to any doctor asking for a love injection!

  2. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 5, Funny

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  3. Ah, valentines day. by sparklingfruit · · Score: 5, Funny

    The one day of the year where I am not the tarket market.

    Love injection? No need. Attractiveness injection? Now there's a seller.

  4. Do it yourself by Lucky+Kevin · · Score: 5, Funny

    But don't all guys give love injections?

    --
    Kevin
    "It's not the cough that carries you off, it's the coffin they carry you off in" O. Nash
  5. Utah by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    As Dr Fisher explains, "you can feel deep attachment for a long-term spouse, while you feel romantic love for someone else, while you feel the sex drive in situations unrelated to either partner." This independence means it is possible to love more than one person at a time, a situation that leads to jealousy, adultery and divorce--though also to the possibilities of promiscuity and polygamy, with the likelihood of extra children, and thus a bigger stake in the genetic future, that those behaviours bring. As Dr Fisher observes, "We were not built to be happy but to reproduce."

    Ah, that explains politics in Utah.

  6. Great news. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Injections cause love? This is great news! Finally I can love my abductor, Conner, who's keeping me in his basement.

    1. Re:Great news. by t_allardyce · · Score: 5, Funny

      Hes keeping you in his basement with a net connection? You rekon he could kidnap me too?

      --
      This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
  7. just in time by elcausado · · Score: 5, Funny
    ...has a story just in time for Valentine's day called...


    Its amazing how research these days has such a superb sense of timing. ;-)

    --
    ------
    I believe in freedom of thought. I have no other choice.
  8. A poem. by SharpFang · · Score: 5, Funny

    Found in fortune file.

    Tell me why the stars do shine
    Tell me why the ivy twines
    Tell me why the sky's so blue
    And I will tell you why I love you.

    Nuclear fusion makes stars to shine
    Phototropism makes ivy twine
    Rayleigh Scattering makes sky so blue
    Sexual hormones are why I love you.

    --
    45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
  9. I find it kind of frightening by drinkypoo · · Score: 5, Funny

    How long before some conservative mad scientist :) releases a retrovirus which makes us all pair-bond for life, inescapably? If I were still with my first love, I'd have to fucking kill myself now.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  10. The difference between love and lust ... by gunix · · Score: 5, Funny

    Well, this axiom holds...

    Attraction = Lust + i*Love

    Lust is the "real" part, and "Love" is the imaginary part.

    --
    Evolution of Language Through The Ages: 6000 BC : ungh, grrf, booga 2000 AD : grep, awk, sed
    1. Re:The difference between love and lust ... by cavac · · Score: 5, Funny

      You could also formulate
      L = (BSTG / BSGF) ^ (BE / DV) * (NS + 1)

      Where L is the Lust you currently feel, BSTG the the Bra size of your target, BSGF is MAX_BREASTSIZE(girlfriends) you already have, BE is the number of Beers you already drank, NS is the number of months you've had no sex and DV is the number of divorces you had been through.

      As you can clearly see, Beer (or other alcohololic drinks) and divorces have the highest influence. But as shown in the next formula, alcohol may also have a bad side effect:

      AS = (V + 1) * L / (B + 1) ^ 3

      AS is the ability to have sex, L is the lust and B is the number of Beers you had (which is very likely more than in the first formula). V is the number of Viagra's you took. You see, the more you drink, the more V you must swallow - although i'd recommend against V when you drunk B for reasons of SF (the survival factor of that night) because:

      SF = (100 - AG / B ^ V) * RN

      Where SF is your survival factor, AG is your age, B the Beers, V the Viagras and RN a boolean (0 or 1) to remember your spouse's name the morning after...

      Therefore everyone claiming that having one-night-stands is easy isn't either
      a) drinking alcohol
      b) a good mathematician
      c) or just plain lucky so far

      Greetings from the statictical front
      Rene

      --
      Look, this thing is totally safe! Built it myself, you know. You just press that button like this and then turn that lev
  11. Why on earth would I want . . . by kfg · · Score: 5, Funny

    an enamored vole following me around?

    KFG

  12. Definition of economics by azzy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I remember back at school when I studied economics, the textbook claimed the definition to be: The study of human behaviour. I suppose that people being in love, that it affects their behaviour.. means that it falls into the definition of economics.. that and the extend to which valentines day is now just a market driven spend spend spend event.

  13. Do these injections... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...have to be administered directly to the cardiac muscle? If so, that would explain Cupid's strange behavior.

  14. Strategy B by Tablizer · · Score: 5, Funny

    Me: "Boss, please don't send my job to India."

    [Poke!]

    Boss: "Oww! What was that?.....Don't worry darling, you are safe with me."

    --
    Table-ized A.I.
  15. Whom Do You Love? by Kehl · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Ok you get your Spouse a love injection but how does that tie there love to you?
    Imagine waking up one morning only to find shes ran off with the milkman! :/

  16. Screw love by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I rather see an article on the science of casual sex.

  17. Some great new spam! by simcop2387 · · Score: 5, Funny

    (i am not trolling i don't think)

    Are you one of the 80% of men who has a lower than average ability to get your partner to fall in love? Well boy do we have a product for you! Liagra! With Liagra you can finally get both your secretary and your wife to love you and each other!! only 6 easy payments of $49.95!

    i wonder how long before we see this

  18. er... by xankar · · Score: 5, Funny

    wait, i thought beer was already invented.

    --
    ~To choose doubt as a philosophy of life is akin to choosing immobility as a means of transportation. -Yann Martel
  19. Seduction by zensufi · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Well, there are sites such as fastseduction.com that provide guides that are based upon the premise that lust and love are remarkably similar and can be installed in people by using using certain patterns of behavior. Click, whirr, anyone?

    --
    I have two eyes, I have two feet.
  20. The ultimate love chemical.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...Is the ink they print money with.

  21. Genes versus moral choice by Nakito · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Here is a key empirical observation from the article: Mating between prairie voles is a tremendous 24-hour effort. After this, they bond for life.... However, another vole, a close relative called the montane vole, has no interest in partnership beyond one-night-stand sex. What is intriguing is that these vast differences in behaviour are the result of a mere handful of genes. The two vole species are more than 99% alike, genetically.

    Imagine the implications for churches if it turns out that fidelity is based on genetic propensities rather than moral choice. On the other hand, if the concept of "original sin" is to be believed, perhaps that is what they have been saying all along.

  22. The heck with injections by ackthpt · · Score: 5, Funny
    Q: What's the difference between a dog and a fox?

    A: A sixpack.

    "Alcohol: Helping men get sex for thousands of years."

    --

    A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
  23. I know this is tongue-in-cheek article, but ... by Richard+Allen · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'm not sure I'd draw the same conclusions as the author here. They start off by saying that sex will enduce certain chemicals which will in turn help to cause a feeling of lust or love in the voles. Then they go on to say if they inject certain chemicals in voles, it will cause them to "fall in love". But people (believe it or not) often fall in love sometimes without having sex. In other words, their thoughts produce the chemicals, which obviously is opposite of saying the chemicals produce the thoughts. It's a which comes first, the chicken or the egg problem. I think injecting chemicals in people would produce the euphoric state they mention in the article, but there needs to be thought processes along side of that to produce love.

    I'm probably missing something here from their logic. Please correct me if so. Thanks.

  24. Maybe too far.. by TimTurnip · · Score: 5, Insightful
    I'm as interested in science as the next geek. I'm stoked that I understand that lightning is a result of static, and not God striking down his wrath...I'm also happy that I'm not worried about California falling off into the ocean, thanks to Ms. Schneider's geology teaching.

    But this might be going a little too far. Love is one of those things that I'm comfortable not understanding - and uncomfortable understanding.

    Call me crazy...but I'm happy knowing that I love my fiancee, and thinking that it's because of her humor/mannerisms/beauty/etc.

    --

    Chicks dig my good /. karma.

  25. Additional Reading by giminy · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I'd suggest reading about the economy of orgasms as well.

    Science is wonderful, isn't it?

    --
    The Right Reverend K. Reid Wightman,
  26. In related news by KrackHouse · · Score: 5, Funny

    Breast milk kegger at my place, bring leather pants and an open mind. Later, Vitamin D

    --
    What if Digg added local news and a Slashdot inspired comment karma system? ---
    http://houndwire.com
  27. Danger: propensity is not choice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I can think of no misinterpretation of the biological sciences more dangerous than the notion that propensity is choice.

    Human beings - especially though perhaps not uniquely - through self-reflection have the capacity to choose actions contrary to our biological propensities and inclinations.

    You are not a slave to your genetic and biological predispositions and inclinations.

    To be a self is to constitute in one's mind and through one's actions what it is to be an individual person.

    It is the drive to dignify, love, and exude - to be - this inner self, this individual person, by which propensity and inclination are overcome.