Reduced cognitive control in passionate lovers

Motivation and Emotion
November 2013
Published online: 02 November 2013
DOI 10.1007/s11031-013-9380-3

Henk van Steenbergen (1,2), Sandra J. E. Langeslag (3), Guido P. H. Band (1,2), Bernhard Hommel (1,2)

1. Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden University, Wassenaarseweg 52, 2333 AK, Leiden, The Netherlands
2. Leiden University Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Wassenaarseweg 52, 2333 AK, Leiden, The Netherlands
3. Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA

RUNNING HEAD: Love and control

Abstract

Passionate love is associated with intense changes in emotion and attention which are thought to play an important role in the early stages of romantic relationship formation. Although passionate love usually involves enhanced, near-obsessive attention to the beloved, anecdotal evidence suggest that the lover’s concentration for daily tasks like study and work may actually be impaired, suggesting reduced cognitive control. Affect might also contribute to changes in cognitive control. We examined the link between passionate love and cognitive control in a sample of students who had recently become involved in a romantic relationship. Intensity of passionate love as measured by the Passionate Love Scale was shown to correlate with decreased individual efficiency in cognitive control as measured in Stroop and flanker task performance. There was no evidence that affective changes mediate this effect. This study provides the first empirical evidence that passionate love in the early stages of romantic relationship is characterized by impaired cognitive control.

Keywords

Passionate love, Cognitive control, Flanker task, Stroop task, Passionate Love Scale (PLS)

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11031-013-9380-3