Can True Love Last Forever?

Posted by Alex in Science & Tech on January 6, 2009 at 12:09 am


Can true love last forever? Scientists at Stony Brook University used brain scans to find that indeed, true love can last a lifetime:

Scanning the brains of people who have been together for 20 years, the scientists found that about one in 10 couples still display elements of “limerence”, the psychologists’ term for the obsessive behaviour of new lovers.

They enjoy “intensive companionship and sexual liveliness” but without the anxieties and tensions of early love. They are generous, calm and deeply attached. The scientists call them swans (swans mate for life).

This is good news for the 10%, if not for the remaining 90% gripped by marital fatigue. But Arthur Aron, leader of the researchers, says the majority can learn from the minority. One clue he has found is that the swans share experiences and avoid stress. This may be a symptom rather than a cause, but Aron, 64, and his wife are copying the swans anyway in the hope of enjoying a little limerence themselves.

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COMMENT

14 comments to "Can True Love Last Forever?"

  1. myleti
    January 6th, 2009 at 12:24 am

    Of course true love exists. I knew that before the study, despite a few of my friends and family members getting divorces.

    Also…

    Team Building Exercise ‘99! :D

  2. Johnny Cat
    January 6th, 2009 at 12:55 am

    Yes, true love exists, but can it last forever? That’s the question, with apologies to the time constraints of ‘forever.’

    Yes, it can last a lifetime, if it’s true and mutual.

  3. myleti
    January 6th, 2009 at 1:07 am

    Whoops, I just forgot the “a lifetime” part. :3

  4. TronStuck
    January 6th, 2009 at 1:14 am

    Conchords FTW!

  5. Alex
    January 6th, 2009 at 2:03 am

    Hah, TronStuck! I wasn’t sure anyone would get that …

  6. Sam and Claire
    January 6th, 2009 at 7:26 am

    CONCHORDS!

    hope we’ll still display ‘limerence’ later on.

    conchords FTW!

  7. Max Power
    January 6th, 2009 at 8:34 am

    So they found out true love lasts a lifetime if you don’t split up? :S

  8. Zombie79
    January 6th, 2009 at 12:56 pm

    Uh, I hate to say this but if you don’t want to share experiences with your partner, why the heck are you together in the first place?

  9. Gauldar
    January 6th, 2009 at 1:53 pm

    Zombie79,

    Short-term thinking, unexpected pregnancies, impulse behaviour. A lot of people also have no idea there is a difference between love and marriage. If religion didn’t pair marriage with its ritualistic dogma, marriage wouldn’t be all that popular since its quiet foreign to the state of mind to a majority of humans.

  10. Scooter
    January 6th, 2009 at 3:33 pm

    Gauldar, what you wrote has lost of truth to it.

    married now 3 years and I am still in love.

  11. donna
    January 6th, 2009 at 6:49 pm

    Or, they could just be lying. ;^)

    You don’t stay married 20 years without some stress, kidlets…

  12. Mr. Maps
    January 6th, 2009 at 6:53 pm

    I’m not sure if swans mate for life like you think. The males do primarily hang around one female, but I think you’ll be surprised if you did a DNA test on the cygnets (baby swans). Swan Swingers.

  13. emmakate
    January 7th, 2009 at 11:05 am

    i LOVE the “business time” reference! i heard it once on the radio (Sirius) and it made me never want to get married after hearing it

  14. Liberty
    June 27th, 2009 at 9:10 pm

    Yes true love does exists and it is interesting that sharing experiances in joy reather then sharing stress helps to keep the feelings alive!!


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