New research draws a link between passionate lovers and competitive environments.
A new study released by researchers at Hokkaido University in Japan suggests that in sexually competitive environments, people tend to be more passionate towards their mates.
Using an online questionnaire, investigators collected responses from 154 Americans and 103 Japanese. The survey was designed to assess perceptions of romantic relational mobility of the people around them and the level of intensity they felt towards their current partner.
Aside from showing that Americans were more passionate with their partners than their Japanese counterparts, the results also revealed that the more passionate a person was, the more likely they were to lavish affection on their mate.
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Moreover, this same person was also more likely to remain exclusive and focus only on their partner.
Lead study investigator and Professor Masaki Yuk with Hokkaido University said the following about the study’s findings.
“For humans, it is imperative to win and keep a good mating partner, which is a basic adaptive issue. Our study showed the importance of considering socio-ecological factors when studying human mating behavior.”
Guy Counseling spoke with David Bennett, a certified counselor in Ohio and relationship expert. He runs the website, The Popular Man and made the following observations about the study.
“Passion seems to be nature’s way of keeping a person locked into a relationship with only one person, when choice/options exist all around them.
It’s a way of ensuring the commitment necessary to procreate and raise a child. Passion usually lasts about 1-3 years, not coincidentally the time necessary to produce, birth, and breastfeed a child, and for the male to help in the process,” said Bennett.
He then offered the following observations, specifically about guys.
“Since men tend to be less selective in whom they should sleep with compared to women [it’s a principle called parental investment theory], it makes sense that men would need to become more passionate toward one person to stay in that relationship, versus straying and abandoning his mate and child when another woman came along,” Bennett said.
Source: Hokkaido University
