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You may have wondered if love is universal. According to a study, it is not. On the contrary, we can even classify the types of love into five categories. Here are which ones.
Platonic, fusional, open… Nowadays, romantic relationships are diverse and varied and we hardly talk about love anymore, with a capital L, in the universal sense of the term. According to scientists from the School of Public Health at Indiana University in Bloomington, who have taken an interest in the subject, there are five new types of love, experienced mainly by today’s young people.
What are the new forms of romantic relationships?
For this work, the scientists studied the responses of 369 young adults in a romantic relationship, without being married. Based on this, the experts aimed to define a typology of romantic relationships based on different points: the relational dynamics of the couple, the duration of the relationship, its consolidation and its commitment.
“Our goal was to use multiple dimensions of romantic relationships to identify a typology of emerging adults’ romantic relationships.” says one of the study’s authors, Jonathon Beckmeyer. They were actually able to define five forms of romantic relationships.
What are these five new types of love?
Scientists were therefore able to determine the following five types of love:
- Strong and happy love : it is representative of 30.8% of respondents. This type of couple has a strong connection, both physical and emotional, with a solid bond. Both members often think about getting married;
- Independent and happy love : 18.9% of respondents are part of this type of love. These are very committed couples but who maintain independence and personal well-being above all;
- Exploratory love : just after come 17.9% of respondents who indicate that they live an exploratory type of love, without commitment. No couple project is envisaged;
- Love stuck : it represents 23% of the participants. In this case, individuals are in a relationship but do not get any satisfaction from it. On the contrary, it generates frustrations and generally leads to separation;
- Platonic love : 9.3% of volunteers responded that they experienced intense platonic love. This does not mean that the relationship is without pitfalls, but on the contrary, this type of relationship is rather characterized by very intense emotions, both positive and negative.
According to scientists, “There appears to be significant and important variation in the types of romantic relationships that adults pursue“and these”vary in terms of relationship dynamics, emotional and physical intimacy, and commitment“. It’s up to you to find the type of love that suits you!
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