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Given the ubiquitous nature of love, numerous theories have been proposed to explain its existence. One such theory refers to love as a commitment device, suggesting that romantic love evolved to foster commitment between partners and enhance their reproductive success. In the present study, we investigated this hypothesis using a large-scale sample of 86,310 individual responses collected across 90 countries. If romantic love is universally perceived as a force that fosters commitment between long-term partners, we expected that individuals likely to suffer greater losses from the termination of their relationships—including people of lower socioeconomic status, those with many children, and women—would place a higher value on romantic love compared to people with higher status, those with fewer children, and men. These predictions were supported. Additionally, we observed that individuals from countries with a higher (vs. lower) Human Development Index placed a greater level of importance on romantic love, suggesting that modernization might influence how romantic love is evaluated. On average, participants worldwide were unwilling to commit to a long-term romantic relationship without love, highlighting romantic love’s universal importance.
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Human Nature
https://doi.org/10.1007/s12110-024-09482-6
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Love asaCommitment Device
Evidence from a Cross-Cultural Study across 90 Countries
MartaKowal · AdamBode· KarolinaKoszałkowska· S.CraigRoberts·
BiljanaGjoneska· DavidFrederick, etal.[full author details at the end of the
article]
Accepted: 6 November 2024
© The Author(s) 2024
Abstract
Given the ubiquitous nature of love, numerous theories have been proposed to
explain its existence. One such theory refers to love as a commitment device, sug-
gesting that romantic love evolved to foster commitment between partners and
enhance their reproductive success. In the present study, we investigated this hypoth-
esis using a large-scale sample of 86,310 individual responses collected across
90 countries. If romantic love is universally perceived as a force that fosters com-
mitment between long-term partners, we expected that individuals likely to suffer
greater losses from the termination of their relationships—including people of lower
socioeconomic status, those with many children, and women—would place a higher
value on romantic love compared to people with higher status, those with fewer chil-
dren, and men. These predictions were supported. Additionally, we observed that
individuals from countries with a higher (vs. lower) Human Development Index
placed a greater level of importance on romantic love, suggesting that moderniza-
tion might influence how romantic love is evaluated. On average, participants world-
wide were unwilling to commit to a long-term romantic relationship without love,
highlighting romantic love’s universal importance.
Keywords Romantic love· Importance of love· Evolutionary theory· Parental
Investment theory· Kephart· Emotion
Love is a ubiquitous experience transcending cultural boundaries (Jankowiak &
Fischer, 1992; Kowal etal., 2024) and temporal constraints (Hatfield etal., 2012).
The nature of love is multifaceted: Humans can feel love for partners, parents, sib-
lings, relatives, friends, other people, pets, and even god (Machin, 2022). In the pre-
sent work, we focus specifically on romantic love, that is, the love felt for a part-
ner within the context of a romantic relationship (Graham, 2011). Romantic love
is commonly divided into at least two subtypes: Passionate love, felt very intensely
and experienced most commonly at the beginning of the romantic relationship, and
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companionate love, which is felt less intensely and experienced most commonly at
later stages of the relationship (Walster & Walster, 1978).
A number of theoretical frameworks have been developed to explain love’s
existence and underlying function. For instance, some scholars have suggested
that romantic love emerges from attachment mechanisms (Hazan & Shaver, 1987;
Mikulincer & Shaver, 2018; Shaver etal., 1996), initially forming between infants
and caregivers (Bowlby, 1979) before later being co-opted into adult romantic rela-
tionships (Bode, 2023). Fisher etal. (2006) have posited that romantic love is one of
the primary brain systems that evolved to maintain the pair bond for the purpose of
reproduction. In a similar vein, other scholars have postulated that love is an adap-
tation designed to motivate behavioral commitment (Fletcher etal., 2015; Frank,
1988).
The concept of love as a commitment device was first proposed by Frank (1988)
and was later elaborated by Fletcher etal. (2015). This perspective, rooted in evolu-
tionary theory, suggests that love is designed to down-regulate interest in available
alternatives and signal this reduction in interest to a partner, motivating commit-
ment to one’s relationship. Human ancestors who signaled romantic love are hypoth-
esized to have more frequently formed enduring pair bonds with their romantic
partners than those who did not (Bales etal., 2021), which might have maximized
their reproductive success. Thus, the propensity to feel romantic love proliferated
to become a universal (or near-universal) human experience (Jankowiak & Fischer,
1992; Kowal etal., 2024).
Romantic love played (and still plays) a crucial role in the provision of psycho-
logical and emotional resources, caregiving, increased fidelity, sharing of resources,
and co-parenting (Bode & Kushnick, 2021; Sorokowski etal., 2017). Romantic love
might be a glue that holds partners together and helps them overcome life obsta-
cles (Coleman, 1988). If, as Frank (1988) argued, romantic love is missing, partners
might not stay faithful to each other. Once a better mate becomes available, a purely
rational agent would pursue the new and more desirable partner. However, roman-
tic love, in motivating irrational disinterest in romantic alternatives, can reassure
one’s partner of their mutual commitment and signal a willingness to stay together
through thick and thin (Buss, 2019).
If the primary function of romantic love is to promote commitment, then roman-
tic love should be universally preferred when selecting a long-term partner. Cross-
cultural evidence supporting this notion comes from Buss’s (1989) seminal study,
which surveyed over 10,000 participants from 33 countries, asking them to rank the
importance of 18 characteristics in a long-term mate. Among both women and men,
love was rated as the most important characteristic in a mate (Buss etal., 1990).
Romantic love’s function to assure partners of one’s dedication and faithful-
ness might become especially crucial when times are challenging. Tan et al.
(2020) suggested that romantic commitment might be particularly important for
individuals of lower socioeconomic status (SES) because they have fewer mate-
rial incentives with which to secure their social partners. Moreover, those with
fewer resources may require resource provisioning from a partner more urgently.
Committed partners provide support that alleviates stress (Bolger & Amarel,
2007), which might be more commonly experienced by people of lower SES
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(Marmot, 2007). Low SES individuals also experience additional stressors that
can lead to conflict and higher rates of divorce, increasing the importance of love
in maintaining the pair bond during challenging economic situations (Harsoyo &
Darmawan, 2023; Karney, 2021; Raz-Yurovich, 2012).
Additionally, the signaling function of love as a commitment device might be
particularly crucial for women. According to parental investment theory (Triv-
ers, 1972; for a review, see Mogilski, 2021), males and females incur varying
reproductive costs, leading to sex differences in mating strategies. Women bear
considerable biological burdens associated with childbearing, including the pro-
tracted and costly processes of pregnancy, childbirth, and lactation. By contrast,
men may contribute as little as providing genetic material through sperm dona-
tion. Given the potential losses that women face if their partner leaves them (and
their offspring), human females are hypothesized to be both more selective when
choosing romantic partners relative to men (Kanin etal., 1970; Knox & Spora-
kowski, 1968) and more skeptical of men’s displays of commitment (Haselton &
Buss, 2000). Thus, if love acts as a signal of commitment, women might value
romantic love more than men.
Finally, the signaling function of love might be particularly important for those
with multiple children. Having children together forms strong bonds between part-
ners (Bellido etal., 2013; Onyishi etal., 2012). Thus, the likelihood of divorce is
inversely correlated with the number of children (Bellido et al., 2013; Xu et al.,
2015), despite evidence suggesting that having children often adversely affects mari-
tal satisfaction (Bogdan etal., 2022; Kowal etal., 2021). Moreover, parenting more
children tends to be more demanding (Vigouroux & Scola, 2018), creating a greater
need for support from a partner (Feinberg, 2003). A deeply committed and loving
partner might come to the rescue when a parent’s resources are depleted; this help
and care for one’s partner is motivated by romantic love (Sternberg, 1986). Thus,
individuals with more children may value love more.
To test these possibilities, we relied on Kephart’s (1967) question, which assesses
the importance of romantic love when considering a marriage partner. As a social
institution, marriage is recognized across all cultures and is universally associated
with a long-term romantic commitment between individuals (Bethmann & Kvas-
nicka, 2011; Grossbard-Shechtman, 2019; Karney & Bradbury, 2020). This type
of long-term commitment is precisely what romantic love is hypothesized to have
evolved to support (Fletcher etal., 2015).
Prior research employing Kephart’s question has primarily focused on sex differ-
ences in the importance of romantic love, yielding conflicting results. Four studies
have supported the finding that men value romantic love more highly than women,
with varying effect sizes (Cohen’s d = 0.88 [large] in Sprecher & Toro-Morn, 2002;
Cohen’s h = 0.85 [large] in Kephart, 1967; h = 0.16 [very small] in Simpson etal.,
1986; h = 0.03 [very small] in Pavlou, 2009). In contrast, three studies found the
opposite, indicating that women value romantic love more than men (averaged
Cohen’s h = − 0.52 [medium] in Sprecher etal., 1994; d = − 0.19 [very small]
in Sprecher & Hatfield, 2017; h = − 0.13 [very small] in Allgeier & Wiederman,
1991), while one study reported no significant sex difference (d = 0 in Adamczyk,
2019).
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Additionally, three studies have documented cross-cultural differences in the
perceived importance of romantic love when considering long-term romantic rela-
tionships (Levine etal., 1995; Sprecher etal., 1994; Sprecher & Toro-Morn, 2002).
These cross-cultural differences may be partially explained by varying levels of
country-level modernization. Previous research has provided evidence that roman-
tic love may be more highly valued in more modernized countries (Baumard etal.,
2022; Sorokowski etal., 2023). To account for this, we included the Human Devel-
opment Index (HDI; United Nations, 2023) as a control variable in our analyses.
A detailed summary of existing studies using Kephart’s question can be found in
TableS1 in the Supplementary Materials (SM).
To examine sex differences in the importance of romantic love and advance
our understanding of the factors potentially explaining intra-individual differences
in romanticism, we conducted a cross-cultural study on individuals from 90 coun-
tries. Drawing from love as a commitment device perspective, we hypothesized that
when considering a long-term romantic relationship (i.e., marriage or registered
partnership):
H1. Individuals of lower SES value romantic love more than those of higher SES.
H2. Women value romantic love more than men.
H3. There is a positive relationship between the importance of romantic love and
the number of children.
Material andMethods
The study’s procedure received approval from the first author’s Institutional Review
Board (IRB) at the Institute of Psychology, University of Wrocław. Before collect-
ing data, all team members either received ethical approval from their local IRBs
or acted on the ethical approval of the first author’s IRB. All participants provided
informed consent prior to participating in the survey. All data, R script, and Supple-
mentary Material have been made publicly available at the OSF and can be accessed
at https:// osf. io/ kw2h9.
Participants
In total, 118,715 participants from 175 countries agreed to complete the survey in
one of the 43 languages available. In the subsequent analyses, we included only data
from participants who passed the attention check, were from countries with a mini-
mum sample size of 30 individuals per country (Arend & Schäfer, 2019; Lieberoth
etal., 2021), had no missing data on the main variables of interest, and reported
being either women or men. The final sample included 86,310 individuals from 90
countries, among whom 58,195 (67%) were women and 30,326 (35%) were stu-
dents. Ages ranged from 18 to 90 (M = 30.11, SD = 12.32). Detailed demographic
profiles for each country can be found in TableS2 in the SM.
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Procedure
We utilized a forward-back translation process (Kowal, 2024) to translate the
survey into 45 linguistic versions, allowing people from diverse linguistic back-
grounds to comfortably participate in our study. Each of the translation teams
was provided with detailed instructions, available openly on the OSF (https://
osf. io/ kw2h9). Upon completion of the translation, data collection started in
April 2021 and ended in August 2021. Most data were collected online, except
in Algeria and Morocco, where collaborators used the paper-pencil method.
The samples were pooled from diverse sources (such as social media, university
mailing lists, newspapers, local community groups, and word-of-mouth adver-
tising), which enabled us to include individuals of different ages, genders, and
socioeconomic backgrounds (e.g., residents of small and large cities, community
and university samples).
Measures
For the present analyses, we used the following measures:
Importance of Love To examine the importance of romantic love for long-term
romantic relationships (Kephart, 1967), we asked participants the following ques-
tion: “Assume you are currently not in a committed relationship. Imagine meeting a
person who has all of the qualities you desired but who you aren’t in love with. How
likely would you be to marry this person/register your partnership with this person?”
The response scale ranged from 0 (I would definitely not marry this person) to 100
(I would definitely marry this person), which we reverse-coded so that higher values
indicated more importance placed on romantic love.
Demographics Participants were asked to self-report their SES by answering the
question, “How good are your financial prospects?” Responses were indicated on an
11-point scale, ranging from 1, “Extremely poor financial prospects (Bottom 1 out of
100 people)” to 11, “Extremely good financial prospects (Top 1 out of 100 people).
Participants indicated their gender by choosing one of the following options: Male,
Female, Nonbinary/Third gender, or “Prefer not to say.” The number of children a
participant could report ranged from “0” to “5 or more.”
Human Development Index (HDI) We used the Human Development Index (HDI;
United Nations, 2023) as a composite statistic for measuring and comparing lev-
els of development between countries. HDI combines the nation’s longevity (life
expectancy at birth), education (mean years of schooling completed at 25 years old
and years of schooling expected for a child), and income (Gross National Income
per capita); it is a frequently used proxy of countries’ modernization level (e.g.,
Sorokowski etal., 2023).
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Statistical Analyses
In the first step, Pearson correlations of the main variables were computed. Nor-
mality of the variables was investigated using commonly recommended cutoffs of
univariate kurtosis values no larger than |7| and skewness values no larger than |2|
(Kim, 2013). To detect potential outliers, the Mahalanobis Distance for the variables
of interest was calculated using a cutoff of p < .001. Individual-level SES and the
number of children were country-mean centered, and HDI was grand-mean cen-
tered. The importance of the love variable was reverse-coded so that higher scores
represented more importance placed on love.
In the next step, multilevel models were conducted, with the importance of love
score as the outcome variable and participants nested within the countries. The first
null model included only the intercept. The second model introduced the predictor
variables, including country-level HDI, individual-level SES, dummy-coded gen-
der (with men as a reference category), and the number of children. In the third
model, individual-level slopes were freed. The models were then compared using
the Bayesian Information Criterion (BIC) and Akaike Information Criterion (AIC),
with a better fit being suggested by changes in the BIC and AIC between the two
models exceeding 10 (Burnham & Anderson, 2004; Raftery, 1995). All analyses
were performed in R (version 4.3.1).
Results
Figure1 presents the average scores for the importance of love when considering a
long-term romantic relationship across countries. The Pearson correlations between
the variables of interest are shown in TableS3 in the SM. All the variables, except
for the number of children, were within the expected range of kurtosis and skewness
values. The number of children variable had one unit added and was log-transformed,
which improved skewness values (from 2.082 to 1.490). However, because the pat-
tern of results was virtually the same and the differences in the coefficient values
were marginal, we decided to retain the original number of children variable in all
analyses. Similarly, the Mahalanobis Distance inspection suggested that data from
949 individuals might be considered outliers, but analyses with the data included and
excluded yielded the same pattern of results. Thus, the analyses we report herein are
performed using the complete dataset, without excluding any outliers.
When comparing the BIC and AIC, the second model had a better fit than the
first (ΔBIC = 38555, ΔAIC = 38592), and the third had a better fit than the second
(ΔBIC = 299, ΔAIC = 383). Hereafter, we present the results of the third model (for
BIC and AIC of all models, see TableS4 in the SM). However, it is noteworthy that
the second and third models yielded a nearly identical pattern of results.
Table1 presents the results of the multilevel analysis. Across nearly all the
countries in our sample, participants highly valued romantic love when consider-
ing a long-term romantic relationship (Fig.1). Support was found for all three
hypotheses. Individuals of lower SES valued romantic love more than those of
higher SES (H1). Romantic love was more important for women than for men
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Fig. 1 Mean ratings of the importance of romantic love when considering a long-term romantic relation-
ship across countries (error bars represent standard errors)
Table 1 Results of the
multilevel model with the
importance of romantic love
when considering a long-term
romantic relationship as an
outcome variable
* p < .05, ** p < .01, *** p < .001. ICC = 0.073, Pseudo r2 = 0.035,
dfresiduals = 86,294, deviance = 232798.2
Fixed effects β SE 95% CI p
HDI 0.128 0.022 [0.084, 0.172] < 0.001***
SES –0.043 0.007 [–0.056, − 0.029] < 0.001***
Gender 0.240 0.016 [0.208, 0.271] < 0.001***
Children 0.027 0.005 [0.017, 0.038] < 0.001***
Random effects Variance SD
Intercept 0.068 0.261
SES 0.002 0.047
Gender 0.014 0.117
Children 0.001 0.032
Residual 0.863 0.929
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(H2). The more children participants had, the more value they placed on roman-
tic love (H3). Additionally, individuals from countries with higher HDIs valued
romantic love more than those from countries with lower HDIs.
Because the effect of gender yielded the largest effect size, we followed up the
analyses with three models: One with the interaction terms with gender intro-
duced, one for women only, and one for men only. The only significant inter-
action was with SES (Fig.2). Importantly, the pattern of results was the same
for both genders (for details, see Tables S5 and S6 in the SM). We also investi-
gated the gender differences in the importance of love when considering a long-
term romantic relationship within countries by computing Cohen’s d values (see
TableS7 and Figure S1 in the SM). Across countries, the average d value for
the observed gender difference was –0.26. Only in Morocco and Tunisia did men
value romantic love more than women.
In the final step, we tested the robustness of the negative association between
SES and the importance of romantic love in the context of long-term relation-
ships by re-running the analyses using an alternative self-reported measure of
SES: social class. Participants responded to the question “Which of the following
best describes your social class level?” with five possible answers: upper class
(1), upper middle class (2), middle class (3), lower middle class (4), and lower
class (5). The responses were reverse-coded, with higher values indicating higher
social class. The results mirrored our initial findings (for details, see TableS8 in
the Supplementary Materials).
Fig. 2 The interaction between
the importance of love when
considering a long-term
romantic relationship and SES
across men and women (shaded
areas represent 95% confidence
intervals)
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Discussion
In the present study, we tested hypotheses derived from the concept of love as a
commitment device (Fletcher etal., 2015; Frank, 1988), which suggests that roman-
tic love evolved as an adaptive mechanism that aids in maintaining a pair bond, thus
enhancing lovers’ reproductive success. Based on the analysis of 86,310 individu-
als across 90 countries, we observed that, when considering a long-term romantic
relationship, romantic love was highly valued in nearly all the countries in our sam-
ple. Moreover, romantic love was particularly important for individuals of lower (vs.
higher) SES (Hypothesis 1), women (vs. men; H2), and those with more (vs. fewer)
children (H3). Additionally, we found evidence that when considering a long-term
romantic relationship, romantic love was more important for participants from more
(vs. less) modernized countries.
Our findings highlight love’s role as a potent commitment mechanism with
diverse implications for maintaining strong bonds within partnerships, albeit with
important variation across cultures. Prior research provided evidence that even com-
mitted individuals may exhibit attentional bias toward attractive others (Ritter etal.,
2010; Simpson etal., 1990), and romantic love priming is enough to suppress such
thoughts of attractive alternatives (Gonzaga etal., 2008; Ma etal., 2015). Further-
more, romantic partners express their love and reassure their commitment to each
other through nonverbal cues (Gonzaga etal., 2001). Romantic partners desire emo-
tional and physical union (Sternberg, 1986), sometimes achieving it by including
the partner in the cognitive self (Branand etal., 2019) or perceiving bodily overlap
with the partner (Quintard et al., 2021). Finally, people worldwide indicated that
romantic love is a crucial aspect of long-term romantic relationships, thus echoing
the results of a cross-cultural study from almost half a century ago in which roman-
tic love was found to be a critical mate preference (Buss, 1989).
According to the concept of love as a commitment device, romantic love acts as
a cohesive force that binds partners together. Thus, when considering a long-term
romantic relationship, romantic love is expected to be more important for individu-
als who have potentially more to lose in the event of romantic relationship disso-
lution, such as those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, who may face diffi-
culties in maintaining financial stability when left by their partners (Conger etal.,
1997; McLanahan & Sandefur, 2009; Vyas & Dillahunt, 2017). By contrast, individ-
uals from higher socioeconomic backgrounds are typically more satisfied with their
income (Vera-Villarroel etal., 2015; Ward & King, 2019) and have more extensive
economic resources to support themselves (Marmot, 2007). They are also more
desirable as future spouses (for a review, see Shafer & James, 2013), perhaps due
to more positive self-regard (Renger etal., 2024). Our study corroborates this per-
spective by finding evidence for a negative association between the importance of
romantic love when considering a long-term romantic relationship and individual-
level SES, though the strength of this association was not large.
Conversely, we observed a positive relationship between the importance of
romantic love when considering a long-term romantic relationship and a proxy
of country-level SES—the Human Development Index. This result, the second
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strongest observed in the present study, is fascinating since it runs opposite to what
we observed on the individual level (i.e., participants’ SES). However, evolutionary
scholars emphasize the impact of environmental conditions and cultural contexts on
human cognition, behaviors, and emotions, leading to significant variations in osten-
sibly universal traits (Lewis etal., 2021). Thus, although romantic love is recognized
as a culturally universal phenomenon (Jankowiak & Fischer, 1992; Kowal etal.,
2024) and is hypothesized to have evolved to facilitate pair bonding and enhance
reproductive success (Buss, 2019), cultural influences may nonetheless also shape
evaluations of romantic love’s importance (Cullen, 2022). Given that mass media
and popular culture in more modernized countries often promote romantic love as
a fundamental life goal (Dukes etal., 2003; Hefner & Wilson, 2013), it is unsur-
prising that individuals immersed in such cultural narratives value romantic love
particularly highly. Interestingly, the ideal of romantic love depicted in mass media
has also been extended to encompass not just one but multiple objects of love, with
polyamory serving as one example (Hurson, 2016).
There is a common belief that men are more romantic than women (Orbuch,
2009), and empirical research has provided some support for this assertion. For
instance, men typically score higher on the Romantic Beliefs Scale than women
(Sprecher & Metts, 1989). Men also tend to fall in love and say “I love you” faster
than women (Bode etal., 2024; Harrison & Shortall, 2011; Watkins etal., 2022).
However, women place stronger emphasis on emotional connection than men (Buss,
1995; Shackelford & Buss, 1997).
According to parental investment theory (Trivers, 1972), these differences can
be explained by considering the potential gains and losses an individual faces upon
entering a romantic relationship. Initiating a relationship usually results in securing
sexual access to the partner (Kislev, 2021). From an evolutionary perspective, this
outcome is a highly desirable goal for men, carrying more potential benefits and
fewer risks than for women, who, unlike men, face the possibility of becoming preg-
nant and incurring the high metabolic costs associated with pregnancy and lactation.
Men’s experience and expression of romantic love might signal their commitment,
reassuring women about the durability of their relationship with their partners. Here,
we predicted and found that women also valued romantic love more than men, with
this association being the strongest among all the predictors in the present study.
From an evolutionary point of view, the ultimate goal of pair bonding is to facil-
itate the transmission of genes to subsequent generations (Buss, 2023). Romantic
love may help accomplish this objective through initial sex drive, attraction, and pair
bonding (Bode, 2023; Fisher, 1998). Once the objective is achieved and a roman-
tic couple has children, nurturing them requires a substantial amount of energy
and resources (Maroto, 2018), and as a result, the presence of both parents may
be particularly crucial. This need might explain the greater emphasis on romantic
love among parents of more children, as observed in our study. However, it should
be noted that this association was the weakest among all our predictors. Previous
studies conducted on populations inhabiting environments believed to more closely
approximate human ancestral conditions suggest that children’s survival rates are
higher when both parents contribute to their provision (Winking etal., 2011), with
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the effects of maternal care naturally higher than paternal care (for a review, see
Sear & Mace, 2008).
It is important to note that romantic love ideals do not necessarily reflect actual
feelings of love (Sternberg, 1986). Almost everyone—not only lovers—may view
romantic love as crucial and associate it with long-term relationships (Mengzhen
etal., 2024). However, numerous factors influence the actual experience of roman-
tic love (Machin, 2022). Take SES as an example. Although individuals of lower
SES may perceive romantic love as more important than those of higher SES, actual
experiences of romantic love may be more intense among individuals of higher
SES. Everyday challenges and financial struggles encountered by individuals of
lower SES can contribute to increased conflict between partners and, in turn, hinder
romantic love feelings (Neff & Karney, 2017).
Some studies have provided support for the notion that romantic love ideals and
actual love experiences are distinct phenomena. For instance, Holmberg and Mac-
Kenzie (2002) found that people’s beliefs about how romantic relationships should
unfold were unrelated to their actual experiences of romantic love. Other researchers
have provided preliminary evidence that romantic scripts can influence actual love
feelings, though through different mechanisms. On one hand, romantic beliefs may
positively affect the intensity of love, particularly when the relationship is fulfill-
ing (Soyer & Sünbül, 2023). On the other hand, reflecting on discrepancies between
romantic ideals and actual experiences of love may lead to negative emotions and
dissatisfaction with one’s romantic relationship (Metz, 2007). This possibility helps
contextualize the present results alongside previous findings; it offers another poten-
tial explanation for why individuals of lower SES, despite valuing romantic love
more highly than those of higher SES, might still experience lower levels of roman-
tic love feelings (Neff & Karney, 2017).
While our study provides novel insights into the concept of romantic love as
a commitment device, it is essential to acknowledge several limitations that are
common in cross-cultural research (Kowal etal., 2022; Sorokowski etal., 2023).
First, the sample predominantly consisted of well-educated individuals, which
does not fully represent the diverse populations of the countries included. There-
fore, despite collecting data from a broad selection of countries, caution must
be exercised in generalizing the results to all human cultures. Furthermore, we
acknowledge that our assessment of SES primarily focused on resource capital,
omitting other important dimensions, such as educational and cultural capital
(for a discussion of different approaches to measuring SES, see Avvisati, 2020).
Our primary analyses included assessments of financial prospects. These pros-
pects are not limited to the current possession of wealth but reflect a capacity
to acquire resources. Prior research has shown that ambition and industrious-
ness can serve as important indicators of future wealth (Buss & Schmitt, 2019).
However, the latter two items may also capture one’s optimism. As a robustness
check, we conducted a follow-up analysis using another SES measure: partici-
pants’ self-reported social class. Importantly, the pattern of results remained con-
sistent. While the distribution of self-reported SES in our sample was normal,
individuals from lower SES backgrounds may still be underrepresented. Future
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Human Nature
research could benefit from the use of more comprehensive SES measures, such
as income, to capture participants’ socioeconomic standing more precisely.
Second, we relied on a single-item question about the importance of roman-
tic love when considering a long-term relationship (Kephart, 1967), and thus,
standard measures of testing the scale’s reliability cannot be applied (Cronbach,
1951). However, the rising popularity and acceptance of single-item measures
underscore their utility (Jovanović & Lazić, 2020), with some scholars arguing
that single-item measures perform comparably well to multi-item scales (Niehuis
etal., 2024). Third, while Kephart’s (1967) question serves as one approach to
assessing the importance of romantic love when considering a long-term roman-
tic relationship, future research could employ alternative measures, such as the
Romantic Beliefs Scale (Sprecher & Metts, 1989). Fourth, Kephart’s (1967) ques-
tion employed in the present study was framed within the context of marriage
and registered partnership. The institution of marriage is universally recognized
(Bethmann & Kvasnicka, 2011; Grossbard-Shechtman, 2019; Karney & Brad-
bury, 2020), but considering the gradual decline in the importance of such rela-
tionships (Pew Research Center, 2010), some participants might have opposed the
idea of engaging in marriage or a registered partnership and not the importance
of romantic love in a long-term committed relationship per se. Such an attitude
would result in the same pattern of responses in both cases: Not being eager to
engage in a loveless marriage, regardless of the underlying reason. However, we
deem this possibility unlikely, given that participants from Norway and Sweden—
countries with relatively low marriage rates—reported preferences for romantic
love which mirrored the results from participants in countries with comparable
HDI scores but higher marriage rates (United Nations, 2019). Fifth, because we
asked participants a hypothetical question, we cannot draw definitive conclusions
about how they would behave in real-life scenarios or even if they all understood
the question in the same way.
Sixth, our focus was limited to a small number of factors that might explain dif-
ferences in the perceived importance of romantic love in long-term relationships.
It would be valuable to explore additional socio-cultural and demographic vari-
ables, such as relationship type, age, religion, cultural norms around romantic ideals,
and attitudes toward marriage and divorce. For example, participants from Ghana,
Morocco, and Iran placed the least emphasis on romantic love in the context of
long-term relationships. Potential reasons for this may include cultural and religious
influences. Specifically, participants from these countries had the highest scores on
collectivistic values across all studied countries (with the highest averages in Ghana
and Morocco, followed by Angola and Iran). Additionally, these countries also
had the highest percentage of Muslim participants (with Morocco having the high-
est percentage, followed by Iran and Ghana). The historical prevalence of arranged
marriages in these regions might also partly explain the observed findings (Parkin,
2021). However, if this were the primary factor driving the results, we would expect
participants from India, where arranged marriages are highly prevalent (Jaiswal,
2014), to rate romantic love as least important compared to other countries. How-
ever, this was not the case. Other potential explanations for cross-cultural differences
such as these warrant further investigation by cross-cultural scholars, who may be
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Human Nature
interested in utilizing our publicly available data (which can be found on the OSF:
https:// osf. io/ kw2h9).
In summary, our results provide evidence that romantic love is universally rec-
ognized as an important factor for long-term romantic relationships, supporting the
concept of romantic love as a commitment device. We observed that, when consid-
ering a long-term relationship, romantic love was valued more highly by individuals
for whom the endurance of their relationship might be more critical or who may
face greater losses upon relationship dissolution—namely individuals of lower SES,
women, and those with more children. We also found that romantic love was more
important for individuals from more modernized countries, which aligns with pre-
vious studies suggesting the influence of culture on perceptions of romantic love
(Baumard etal., 2022; Sorokowski etal., 2023). In conclusion, our findings under-
score the role of romantic love as a pivotal commitment mechanism, shedding light
on both its universal significance and cultural variability. Our study highlights its
heightened importance among individuals facing socioeconomic challenges, gen-
der disparities, and familial responsibilities while also revealing intriguing patterns
across different national cultures.
Acknowledgements We would like to thank all the participants who participated in the study, and all
individuals who helped in translating the survey and collecting the data.
Authors’ Contributions Ma.K., A.B., K.K., S.C.R., B.G., D.A.F., A.S., D.D., D.G., T.A., P.P., C.G.,
H.Ç., D.A.D., R.B., C.B., Y.B., M.B., N.B., A.R.C., R.C., W.J.C., Y.D., S.D., I.D., E.E., F.F-R., T.F.,
F.E.G., T.G.Y., F.G., B.B.H., Me.K., M.L-B., S.L., T.M., M.M-L., Mo.M., Ma.M., I.L.G.N., M.D.O.F.,
Ma.C.T.P., M.P., F.P., E.P., K.P., U.R., M.S.R., A.Ş., F.Z.S., Ok.S., Og.S., S.T., J.U., M.V., T.V., A.W.,
G.Y., B.G., P.S. contributed to the study conception and design. Data collection was performed by Ma.K.,
B.G., D.A.F., A.S., D.D., D.G., T.A., P.P., C.G., H.Ç., D.A.D., R.B., C.B., Y.B., M.B., N.B., A.R.C.,
R.C., W.J.C., Y.D., S.D., I.D., E.E., F.F-R., T.F., F.E.G., T.G.Y., F.G., B.B.H., Me.K., M.L-B., S.L.,
T.M., M.M-L., Mo.M., Ma.M., I.L.G.N., M.D.O.F., Ma.C.T.P., M.P., F.P., E.P., K.P., U.R., M.S.R.,
A.Ş., F.Z.S., Ok.S., Og.S., S.T., J.U., M.V., T.V., A.W., G.Y., B.G., P.S. Data analysis was performed
by Ma.K. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Ma.K., A.B., and K.K. Ma.K., A.B., K.K.,
S.C.R., B.G., D.A.F., A.S., D.D., D.G., T.A., P.P., C.G., H.Ç., D.A.D., R.B., C.B., Y.B., M.B., N.B.,
A.R.C., R.C., W.J.C., Y.D., S.D., I.D., E.E., F.F-R., T.F., F.E.G., T.G.Y., F.G., B.B.H., Me.K., M.L-B.,
S.L., T.M., M.M-L., Mo.M., Ma.M., I.L.G.N., M.D.O.F., Ma.C.T.P., M.P., F.P., E.P., K.P., U.R., M.S.R.,
A.Ş., F.Z.S., Ok.S., Og.S., S.T., J.U., M.V., T.V., A.W., G.Y., B.G., P.S. read and approved the final draft
of the manuscript.
Funding This study was made possible by the funds from the National Science Centre (2019/33/N/
HS6/00054). Marta Kowal was supported by the Foundation for Polish Science (FNP) START scholar-
ship. Dmitrii Dubrov and Dmitry Grigoryev were supported within the Basic Research Program at the
National Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE University). Toivo Aavik was supported
by the Estonian Research Council grant (PRG2190).
Data Availability All data, R script, and Supplementary Material have been made publicly available at
the OSF and can be accessed at https:// osf. io/ kw2h9.
Declarations
Ethics Statement and Informed Consent The study’s procedure received approval from the first author’s
Institutional Review Board (IRB) at the Institute of Psychology, University of Wrocław. Before collect-
ing data, all team members either received ethical approval from their local IRBs or acted on the ethical
approval of the first author’s IRB. All participants provided informed consent prior to participating in the
survey.
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Human Nature
Conflict of Interest The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License,
which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long
as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative
Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this
article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line
to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended
use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permis-
sion directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/
licenses/by/4.0/.
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Marta Kowal Marta Kowal is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Wrocław.Her research pri-
marily focuses on mate attraction, with an emphasis oncross-cultural perspectives.
Authors and Aliations
MartaKowal1 · AdamBode2· KarolinaKoszałkowska3· S.CraigRoberts1,54·
BiljanaGjoneska4· DavidFrederick5· AnnaStudzinska6·
DmitriiDubrov7· DmitryGrigoryev7· ToivoAavik8· PavolProkop9·
CaterinaGrano10· HakanÇetinkaya11· DeryaAtamtürkDuyar12·
RobertoBaiocco13· CarlotaBatres14· YakhlefBelkacem15· MerveBoğa16·
NanaBurduli17· AliR.Can18· RaziehChegeni19· WilliamJ.Chopik20·
YahyaDon21· SedaDural22· IzzetDuyar12· EdgardoEtchezahar23·
FetenFekih‑Romdhane24,55· TomaszFrackowiak25· FelipeE.García26·
TaliaGomezYepes27· FaridaGuemaz28· BrahimB.Hamdaoui29·
MehmetKoyuncu16· MiguelLanda‑Blanco30· SamuelLins31·
TiagoMarot32· MarlonMayorga‑Lascano33· MoisesMebarak34·
MaraMorelli35· IzuchukwuL.G.Ndukaihe36· MohdSoanOmarFauzee37·
Ma.CriseldaTengcoPacquing38· MiriamParise39· FaridPazhoohi40·
EkaterinePirtskhalava41· KoenPonnet42· Ulf‑DietrichReips43·
MarcEricSantosReyes38· AyşegülŞahin12· FatimaZahraSahli44·
OksanaSenyk45· OgnenSpasovski46· SinghaTulyakul47· JoaquínUngaretti48·
MonaVintila49· TatianaVolkodav50· AnnaWlodarczyk51· GyesookYoo52·
BenjaminGelbart53· PiotrSorokowski25
* Marta Kowal
marta7kowal@gmail.com
1 IDN Being Human Lab - Institute ofPsychology, University ofWrocław, Wrocław, Poland
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Human Nature
2 School ofArchaeology andAnthropology, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
3 Faculty ofEducational Sciences, Institute ofPsychology, University ofLodz, Łódź, Poland
4 Macedonian Academy ofSciences andArts, Skopje, NorthMacedonia
5 Crean College ofHealth andBehavioral Sciences, Chapman University, Orange, CA, USA
6 Humanities Department, Icam School ofEngineering, Toulouse Campus, Toulouse, France
7 Center forSociocultural Research, HSE University, Moskva, Moscow, Russia
8 Institute ofPsychology, University ofTartu, Tartu, Estonia
9 Department ofEnvironmental Ecology, Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovakia
10 Department ofPsychology, Sapienza University ofRome, Rome, Italy
11 Department ofPsychology, Yaşar University, Izmir, Turkey
12 Department ofAnthropology, Istanbul University, Istanbul, Turkey
13 Department ofDevelopmental andSocial Psychology, Sapienza University ofRome, Rome,
Italy
14 Department ofPsychology, Franklin andMarshall College, Lancaster, PA, USA
15 Ecole Normale Supérieure Assia DJEBAR de Constantine, Constantine, Algérie
16 Department ofPsychology, Ege University, İzmir, Turkey
17 Department ofPsychology, University ofGeorgia, Tbilisi, Georgia
18 Department ofAnthropology, Hatay Mustafa Kemal University, Hatay, Turkey
19 PROMENTA Research Center, Department ofPsychology, University ofOslo, Oslo, Norway
20 Department ofPsychology, Michigan State University, EastLansing, MI, USA
21 School ofEducation, Universiti Utara Malaysia, Sintok, Kedah, Malaysia
22 Department ofPsychology, Izmir University ofEconomics, İzmir, Turkey
23 Psicología Evolutiva y de la Educación, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, España
24 Department ofPsychiatry Ibn Omrane, Razi Hospital, Manouba, Tunisia
25 Institute ofPsychology, University ofWrocław, Wrocław, Poland
26 Departamento de Psiquiatría y Salud Mental, Universidad de Concepción, Concepción, Chile
27 Department ofEducation, Universidad Internacional de Valencia, Valencia, Spain
28 Department ofPsychology andEducation Sciences andSpeech Therapy, Mohamed Lamine
Debaghine, Setif2 University, Setif, Algeria
29 Department ofSosiologie, Ibn Tofail University, Kenitra, Morocco
30 School ofPsychological Sciences, National Autonomous University ofHonduras, Tegucigalpa,
Honduras
31 Department ofPsychology, University ofPorto, Porto, Portugal
32 Department ofAdministration, Getulio Vargas Foundation, RioDeJaneiro, Brazil
33 Escuela de Psicología, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador- Ambato, Ambato, Ecuador
34 Department ofPsychology, Universidad del Norte, PuertoColombia, Colombia
35 Department ofDynamic andClinical Psychology andHealth Studies, Sapienza University
ofRome, Rome, Italy
36 Department ofPsychology, Alex Ekwueme Federal University, Ndufu-alike, Nigeria
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37 Faculty ofEducation andLiberal Arts, INTI International University, Nilai, Malaysia
38 Department ofPsychology, University ofSanto Tomas, Manila, Philippines
39 Department ofPsychology, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milano, Italy
40 School ofPsychology, University ofPlymouth, Plymouth, UK
41 Department ofPsychology, Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, Tbilisi, Georgia
42 Faculty ofSocial Sciences, imec-mict-Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
43 Department ofPsychology, University ofKonstanz, Konstanz, Germany
44 Interdisciplinary Sports Science Laboratory, Institute ofSports Professions, Ibn Tofail
University, Kenitra, Morocco
45 WSB Merito University inGdansk, Gdańsk, Poland
46 Department ofPsychology, Ss. Cyril andMethodius University, Skopje, NorthMacedonia
47 Department ofHealth andPhysical Education, Thaksin University, Songkhla, Thailand
48 School ofEducation, International University ofValencia, Valencia, Spain
49 Psychology Department, West University ofTimisoara, Timisoara, Romania
50 Department ofPsychology andPedagogy, Kuban State University, Krasnodar, Russia
51 Escuela de Psicología, Universidad Católica del Norte, Antofagasta, Chile
52 Department ofChild & Family Studies, Kyung Hee University, Seoul, RepublicofKorea
53 Department ofPsychological andBrain Sciences, University ofCalifornia, SantaBarbara, CA,
USA
54 Division ofPsychology, University ofStirling, Stirling, UK
55 Faculty ofMedicine ofTunis, Tunis El Manar University, Tunis, Tunisia
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This research aims at: (i) analyzing the main issue leading to divorce in family; (ii) analyzing the socio-economic factor causing the divorce; and (iii) identifying what the families need to prevent divorce. This research employs the method of qualitative-descriptive survey with 5 respondents, consisting of 20 men and 32 men who are divorced. Data collection was conducted using questionnaires. The quantitative findings were investigated with a qualitative approach by interview, exclusively with the respondents who had given their consent to provide information in a face-to-face setting. Based on the field data, it is found that the main factors leading to divorce are economy (37.04 percent) and extramarital affairs (29.63 percent). Meanwhile, the main socio-economic factors that cause divorce include low family income (29.55 percent), household debt (18.18 percent), distrust in household financial management (11.36 percent), unemployed husband/wife (9.09 percent), and greater concern on the family of origin (9.09 percent). As a measure to avoid divorce, most of the respondents (34.67 percent) feel the need for pre-marital seminar, 22.67 percent of them need marriage counseling services, 22 percent consider marriage age maturation is necessary, and 16.67 percent need household financial management training.
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Background: Evolutionary selection pressures, most notably sexual selection, have created (and continue to sustain) many psychobehavioral differences between females and males. One such domain where psychobehavioral sex differences may be prominent is romantic love. The ways in which females and males may experience and express romantic love differently has been studied in psychology as well as in the arts down the ages; however, no studies have focused specifically on romantic love (i.e., passionate love) using validated measures of romantic love focusing solely on people who are currently experiencing this form of love. Methods: This study investigated sex differences in features and aspects of romantic love among 808 young adults experiencing romantic love. Univariate and multivariate analyses were used to identify sex differences in the number of times participants had fallen in love, when they fell in love relative to when they started their romantic relationship (love progression), intensity of romantic love, obsessive thinking about a loved one, and commitment. Additional univariate comparisons were made for the Passionate Love Scale. Results: Univariate analyses identified small sex differences in number of times in love, love progression, intensity of romantic love, and obsessive thinking about a loved one. Multivariate analyses, controlling for several variables believed to influence romantic love, found a small association between biological sex and obsessive thinking about a loved one. There were also very small associations between biological sex and number of times in love, love progression, and intensity of romantic love. Conclusions: The findings are considered with reference to two evolutionary theories: sexual selection and the theory of co-opting mother infant bonding in the evolutionary history of romantic love. We suggest that the specific adaptive challenges faced by females and males in the evolutionary history of romantic love may contribute to sex differences in romantic love, and that sex differences in pre-existing biological mechanisms may further contribute to sex differences in romantic love. The findings shed light on the possible evolutionary history and evolutionary functions of romantic love.
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This study examined the mediating roles of triangular love components (intimacy, passion, and commitment) in the relationship between university students’ romantic relationship beliefs and marriage attitudes. The research sample consisted of 376 undergraduate students, 289 of whom were female and 87 were male, studying at a public university. In addition to the Personal Information Form, four measurement tools, namely the Inönü Marriage Attitude Scale, the Sternberg Triangular Love Scale (STLS and STLS-M forms), and the Romantic Relationship Beliefs Scale, were employed in this study. According to the resultant findings, of the triangular love components, intimacy had a partial mediating role, while passion and commitment had full mediating roles in the relationship between romantic relationship beliefs and marriage attitudes. All the adjustments regarding the collected data were conducted in the R programming environment. The findings were discussed based on the existing literature, followed by suggestions for various practices in the field and future studies.