People don’t come much more analytical and sharp than Jeff Bezos. You just don’t get to be the richest (or, today, second richest!) man in the world—barring a huge inheritance!–without being really smart, not to mention, focused on your work. Bezos and his now ex-wife, MacKenzie, divorced with a settlement worth $38 billion. So how …
The “Jeff Bezos Syndrome”: When Craving Challenge Becomes an Addiction Read More »
Once upon a time, Prince Charles traded Princess Diana for Camilla, now Duchess of Cornwall. If you don’t remember who Princess Diana and Duchess Camilla are or what they look like, you can find information on the Internet. The late Princess Diana did a lot to make the world a better place. She was active …
Prince Charles Syndrome: Why Do People Trade More Desirable for Less Desirable Mates? Read More »
Do you remember learning about William the Conqueror in school? I sure don’t. I know we studied him—and his conquests—somewhere along the line but I have only the fuzziest remembrance of who he conquered and why. And now that I looked him up again to refresh my memory, I see that there’s not much about …
Many of us have been in relationships that, in retrospect, seem to have been doomed from the start. We may have asked ourselves—as I have—how we could have missed the clues that the relationship was on the road to nowhere. To understand why relationships fail, one can start with the nature of love and how …
Three BIG Reasons Why Relationships Can Be Doomed from the Start Read More »
If I’m going to write about love, you should know something about how and why I first became interested in studying it scientifically. So here it is! I decided to start studying love after a string of failed relationships. Each one seemed to fail for a different reason, but they all failed. I was sure …
Judy has been in a relationship with Mark for eight months. On the one hand, the relationship has been going fairly well. On the other hand, Mark’s neediness is driving her a bit crazy. Judy wants to be needed. But not all the time—not every second of the day; not when she is meeting with her boss and …
Jared has a lot of experience with relationships. If there is a problem, it is that he has had lots and lots of relationships, none of which has lasted very long. He moves from one relationship to the next, with any one relationship rarely lasting longer than a few months. Although he has not given the matter serious …
Mary and Daniel have been together for 3 years. Their relationship has been strong from the start. But recently Mary has come to realize that she misses the deep and searching conversations she used to have with Daniel early in their relationship. Whereas once they talked about their goals in life, their values and why they were important, …
Do Levels of Intimacy Go Down Over Time in Close Relationships? Read More »
This blog is about the science of love. To some people, the “science of love” sounds like an oxymoron—two words, “science” and “love” that don’t fit together. I certainly can see why some people would feel that way. The late Senator William Proxmire certainly felt that way: He awarded love researcher Elaine Hatfield a “golden fleece award” for …
Does Science Have Anything Useful to Say about Love? Read More »
For better or worse, almost everything in life that matters comes as a package deal. In general, for example, I love our house for its large rooms, quiet location, and quality build. But it really could use one more room, and part of the lawn is on a steep hill that makes the grass super-hard to mow. I …
Package deals: In love, you always get more than you bargain for Read More »