So, if you’re disappointed because the love you feel isn’t reciprocated, you may be able to take your mind off it. Cognitive reappraisal: changing your thoughts so that your feelings can change.Expression suppression: hiding how you feel.Distraction: engaging in another activity to reduce the strength of your feelings.Situation selection: avoiding or seeking situations based on how they make you feel.

Love is like an emotion that you can regulate by generating new feelings or changing the intensity of the feelings you have. You might feel like you have no control over the love you feel, but research says otherwise. Can you control whether you fall in love? It might also safeguard against cancer, according to a 2021 study that found tissue from pair-bonded mice was less likely to grow tumors than tissue from mice with disruptions to their pair bonds. A 2019 study found that falling in love resulted in immune system changes similar to protective viral infection responses. Love can do more than help you bond with another person. When you love them, those feelings are unconditional. When you like someone, you enjoy their companionship and care about their well-being. It can start as mutual attraction and evolve into love over time. For example, the love you feel for a close friend could be classed as a peer bond.Ī romantic relationship is a type of pair bond. Most instances of human love fall into one of these categories. conspecific bonds, or bonds between individuals of the same species.

bonds between parents and their infants.

pair bonds, where individuals form a close, long-term social connection.

Strong attachment bonds set mammals apart from many other types of animals, though other groups - including fish and birds - also form strong social connections to help them survive.Ī 2017 review describes four types of mammalian attachment bonds as:

The hypothesis of love