Glenn Wilson PhD, Institute of Psychiatry,

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IS THERE SUCH A THING?

• Glenn Wilson PhD, Institute of Psychiatry,
• Kings College,University of London

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FOUR MAIN AREAS

• Attraction
• Arousal
• Romantic love
• Relationship stability

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IS THIS AN ATTRACTIVE FACE?

• WHY?

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SOME PRINCIPLES OF ATTRACTION

• Baby faces are attractive in women tougher,
  swarthier looks for men.
• Symmetry is attractive in both sexes
• A low waist/hip ratio is attractive in women
  tall, V-shaped men more attractive.
• Vulnerability is attractive in women
  ruthlessness in men (needing protection vs
  commanding resources).
• Deep voice attractive in men higher voice in
  women.
• These are signals of oestrogen/fertility (women)
  testosterone/power (men), or signs of general
  health/youth.

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SNIFFING OUT COMPLEMENTARY GENES

• Smell preferences may be connected with a search
  for complementary genes that will broaden the
  immunity spectrum of our offspring.
• Human leukocyte antigens (HLAs) govern our
  immune system and can be detected in body
  odour.
• Some evidence that we prefer different HLAs when
  breeding, but similar HLAs when needing family
  support (e.g. when pregnant).

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TRIGGERS FOR SEXUAL AROUSAL

• These are based on innate releasers (stored
  sexual signals, c.f., instincts/archetypes).
• Depend on visual templates (esp. for males).
• Consolidated or modified by early childhood
  imprinting (inappropriate fetishism).
• Habituation occurs to particular exemplars, esp.
  males (Coolidge Effect).

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An IRM for the human male?
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Female front
Male front
Female rear
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CHILDHOOD IMPRINTING OF SEX TARGETS
Cross-fostering studies reveal importance of
mother-image. Lambs raised by a goat mother
(left) and kids raised by a sheep mother (right)
fancy the wrong species when grown up (effect
esp. obvious for males, who depend more on
targets.)
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Other Oedipal imprinting studies

• Japanese quail raised by albino mothers prefer
  albino mates (Bateson 1978).
• Hawaiians of mixed race tend to marry into ethnic
  group of opposite-sex parent (Jedlicka 1980).
• Women fall in love with men of eye colour more
  similar to their father than mother (Wilson
  Barrett 1987).
• Photos of wives correctly matched by external
  judges to mothers-in-law beyond chance
  (Bereczkei et al 2002).

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The compulsive attraction of close relatives
reared apart (Star 18/1/88)

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Female fMRI (BOLD) responses to attractive males
Brain areas activated as a young woman views
eligible male faces bodies (those linking
cortical pattern processing with limbic emotional
areas).
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Female fMRI (BOLD) responses to five different men
Male rated most desirable to date
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LOVE IN THE BRAIN
fMRI has also been used to find areas of brain
active when love is experienced. e.g. Brain
responses to pictures of a loved partner are
compared with responses to pictures of
friends. Or, brain responses to romantic
pictures are compared with responses to explicit
erotica. Brain areas concerned with love are the
emotional/social areas such as the amygdala and
insula those concerned with lust are more
animal (e.g brain stem and hypothalamus).
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CONDITIONS FAVOURING LOVE

• High arousal (even negative) promotes love
  bonds.
• Gazing into each others eyes and sharing intimate
  details about oneself (mutual self- disclosure)ma
  y create love in the laboratory.
• Sexual arousal and pleasure evoke a hormone
  called oxytocin (also responsible for
  mother/child bonding).
• Being in love shares brain chemistry with
  obsessional/compulsive states (low serotonin)

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ARE WE NATURALLY MONOGAMOUS?

• Very few animals are monogamous, and even fewer
  mammals. Gibbon may be only primate.
• Most human societies recognise polygamy those
  that dont tend towards serial monogamy.
• Males of most species have greater drive towards
  partner novelty (promotes gene dispersion).
• Women may also benefit from infidelity more
  attracted to lovers when fertile. But may flirt
  just to keep partner on his toes.

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DON JUAN GENES
This promiscuous, but a gene that increases
production of a hormone in the brain called
vasopressin, transferred from the monogamous
prairie vole, renders it faithful to one partner
meadow vole is normally
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IS THERE A SEVEN-YEAR ITCH?
Asked Ever wished you werent married?, 1 in 5
wives said yes, and 1 in 7 husbands. Peak
discontent occurs 6-9 years after marrying,
though actual divorce peaks later (11-14 years).
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A COMPATIBLE PAIR SHARED TASTES
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THE COMPATIBIITY QUOTIENT

• The CQ Test is designed to predict long-term
  success of a relationship (after passion has
  cooled).
• Comprises 25 items covering areas known to be
  important for relationship success.
• Answered independently by individuals.
• Each item has 5 possible answers arranged so that
  those further apart clash more.
• A total discrepancy score is calculated between
  the responses of any two people and converted to
  a CQ score with an average of 100.

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A TYPICAL CQ TEST ITEM

• How important to you is sexual fidelity?
• 1. Absolutely essential
• 2. Very important
• 3. Odd lapse forgivable
• 4. You have to expect affairs
• 5. Would want an open, swinging, relationship

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MEANING OF CQ SCORES

• 145 Freak identity Typical of test-retest
  reliability (same person doing the test twice)
  or identical twins.
• 130-144 Extremely compatible Exceptionally high
  degree of similarity.
• 115-129 Very compatible.
• 100-114 Above average. Might work but issues to
  be dealt with.
• 85-99 Below average. Warning bells sounding.
• 70-84 Rather incompatible. Loud warning bells.

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VALIDITY OF THE CQ

• Two studies have shown that happily married
  couples average about 116,compared with 100 for
  random pairings.
• Those reporting the happiest marriages have the
  highest CQ scores.
• This is not due to the couple growing more alike
  with time but to their degree of similarity at
  the outset of the relationship. CQs even predict
  the outcome of a 3 minute speed-date.
• The CQ has application in on-line dating and
  marriage counselling - an early warning of
  potential difficulties in a relationship.

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WHY ARE WE SO FASCINATED BY LOVE?

• The reproductive imperative is our most powerful
  instinct perhaps the only one (selfish gene
  hypothesis).
• The final aim of all love intrigues, be they
  comic or tragic, is really of more importance
  than all other ends in human life. What it all
  turns upon is nothing less than the composition
  of the next generation (Schopenhauer, 1819)