Love and the commitment problem in romantic relations and friendship.
On the basis of the proposition that love promotes commitment, the authors predicted that love would motivate approach, have a distinct signal, and correlate with commitment-enhancing processes when relationships are threatened. The authors studied romantic partners and adolescent opposite-sex friends during interactions that elicited love and threatened the bond. As expected, the experience of love correlated with approach-related states (desire, sympathy). Providing evidence for a nonverbal display of love, four affiliation cues (head nods, Duchenne smiles, gesticulation, forward leans) correlated with self-reports and partner estimates of love. Finally, the experience and display of love correlated with commitment-enhancing processes (e.g., constructive conflict resolution, perceived trust) when the relationship was threatened. Discussion focused on love, positive emotion, and relationships.
Gonzaga
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GC
Department of Psychology, Univesity of California, Berkeley 94720-3210, USA. zaga@uclink4.berkeley.edu
Keltner
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Londahl
E A
EA
Smith
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MD
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003380:Courtship; D003463:Cues; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008149:Love; D008297:Male; D008960:Models, Psychological; D009633:Nonverbal Communication / Q000523:psychology*