25 Fascinating Love Facts
Filed under: Laws of Attraction , Love , Science of Love, Match
Posted May 22nd 2009 12:00AM
by Laura Schaefer, for Match.com's Happen magazine
Love
is a many-splendored thing... and a very surprising thing, too. As if
you needed proof of that, here are 25 funny little facts about love.
Study them, scratch your head over them, and share them with someone
you fancy.
1. Men who kiss their wives in the morning live five years longer than those who don't.
2. The oldest known love song was written 4,000 years ago and comes from an area between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers.
3. When it comes to doing the deed early in the relationship, 78
percent of women would decline an intimate rendezvous if they had not
shaved their legs or underarms.
4. Feminist women are more likely than other females to be in a romantic relationship.
5. Two-thirds of people report that they fall in love with someone they've known for some time vs. someone that they just met.
6. People telling the story of how they fell in love overwhelmingly believe the process is out of their control.
7. Falling in love can induce a calming effect on the body and mind
and raises levels of nerve growth factor for about a year, which helps
to restore the nervous system and improves the lover's memory.
8. Love can also exert the same stress on your body as deep fear.
You see the same physiological responses -- pupil dilation, sweaty
palms, and increased heart rate.
9. Brain scans show that people who view photos of a beloved
experience an activation of the caudate -- the part of the brain
involving cravings.
10. The women of the Tiwi tribe in the South Pacific are married at birth.
11. The "Love Detector" service from Korean cell phone operator KTF
uses technology that is supposed to analyze voice patterns to see if a
lover is speaking honestly and with affection. Users later receive an
analysis of the conversation delivered through text message that breaks
down the amount of affection, surprise, concentration and honesty of
the other speaker.
12. Eleven percent of women have gone online and done research on a
person they were dating or were about to meet, versus seven percent of
men.
13. Couples' personalities converge over time to make partners more and more similar.
14. People are more likely to tilt their heads to the right when
kissing instead of the left (65 percent of people go to the right!).
15. The tradition of the diamond engagement ring comes from Archduke
Maximillian of Austria who, in the 15th century, gave a diamond ring to
his fiancée, Mary of Burgundy.
16. Forty-three percent of women prefer their partners never sign "love" to a card unless they are ready for commitment.
17. People who are newly in love produce decreased levels of the
hormone serotonin -- as low as levels seen in people with
obsessive-compulsive disorder. Perhaps that's why it's so easy to feel
obsessed when you're smitten.
18. Philadelphia International Airport finished as the No. 1 best
airport for making a love connection, according to an online survey.
19. According to mathematical theory, we should date a dozen people
before choosing a long-term partner; that provides the best chance that
you'll make a love match.
20. A man's beard grows fastest when he anticipates sex.
21. Every Valentine's Day, Verona, the Italian city where
Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet took place, receives around 1,000
letters addressed to Juliet.
22. When we get dumped, for a period of time we love the person who
rejected us even more, says Dr. Helen Fisher of Rutgers University and
author of Why We Love. The brain regions that lit up when we were in a
happy union continue to be active.
23. There's a reason why office romances occur: The single biggest
predictor of love is proximity. Familiarity breeds comfort and
closeness... and romance.
24. One in five long-term love relationships began with one or both partners being involved with others.
25. OK, this one may not surprise you, but we had to share it:
Having a romantic relationship makes both genders happier. The stronger
the commitment, the greater the happiness!
Laura Schaefer is the author of Man with Farm Seeks Woman with Tractor.
http://personals.aol.com/articles/2009/05/22/25-fascinating-love-facts/