The saying "love makes you do stupid things" is true.
Since the dawn of time, love has been one powerful emotion that is capable of turning even the most logical person to become irrational. Love is many a crazy thing! And science has become enamoured by the notion of love that they've conducted a research specifically to find out why we behave the way we do during this period.
The new research published in medical journal, Motivation and Emotion, found that people who are in love tend to have less cognitive control. It seems love makes it harder for lovestruck individuals to focus and they end up becoming forgetful.
For the study, 43 subjects were recruited and they were all in a romantic relationship for six months or less. Participants were asked to differentiate between vital and not-so-vital information as quickly as possible.
What was discovered was that the more in love the individuals said they were (as found from previously completed surveys), the more difficulty the participants had in performing the tasks at hand. But what's even more interesting is that the men were equally as clueless as the women, so it's not just the ladies who are the sappy ones.
According to Henk Van Steenbergen, the study's co-author who teamed up with colleagues from Leiden University and University of Maryland, we may have difficulty performing typical cognitive behaviours like multitasking and problem solving because we're using most of our mental energy thinking about the one who has stolen our heart.
Perhaps, it's just the throes of budding love and the effects will decrease over time. When it comes to successful lasting relationship, it seems crucial to have proper cognitive control. "For example, people need cognitive control to prevent themselves from being distracted by other attractive people," said Sandra Langeslag, another co-author of the study.
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