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Experiences of falling in love: Investigating culture,

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 Journal of Social and Personal
Relationships
http://spr.sagepub.com

Experiences of falling in love: Investigating culture, ethnicity, gender, and

speed
Suzanne Riela, Geraldine Rodriguez, Arthur Aron, Xiaomeng Xu and Bianca P.
Acevedo
Journal of Social and Personal Relationships 2010; 27; 473
DOI: 10.1177/0265407510363508

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 Experiences of falling in love:
Investigating culture, ethnicity,
gender, and speed
Suzanne Riela
State University of New York at Stony Brook, USA

Geraldine Rodriguez
EMQ Children & Family Services, USA

Arthur Aron, Xiaomeng Xu, & Bianca P. Acevedo

State University of New York at Stony Brook, USA

ABSTRACT
This research investigated 12 precursors to falling love – reci-
procal liking, appearance, personality, similarity, familiarity,
social influence, filling needs, arousal, readiness, specific cues,
isolation, and mysteriousness – with respect to culture, ethnic-
ity, gender, and speed. In Study 1, White-American and Asian-
American participants wrote narratives of their falling in love
experiences. In Study 2, participants from the United States
and China wrote narratives and completed self-ratings of the
precursors. Few ethnic, gender, and speed differences were
obtained in either study, but those found were in the predicted
direction. Many cultural differences were found in Study 2,
the majority of which were consistent with individualism-
collectivism models. Implications for understanding falling in
love and directions for future research are discussed.

KEY WORDS: attraction • China • culture • ethnicity • falling in love

• individualism-collectivism • narrative accounts • United States

We would like to thank the following individuals for their assistance in conducting this research
in China: Guikang Cao, Tingyong Feng, and Xuchu Weng. Portions of this manuscript were
presented at the 2006 meeting of the International Association for Relationship Research and
the 2007 meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology. All correspondence
concerning this article should be addressed to Suzanne Riela, Department of Psychology, State
University of New York at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, NY 11794–2500, USA [e-mail: suzanne.
riela@gmail.com]. Sandra Metts was the Action Editor on this article.

Journal of Social and Personal Relationships © The Author(s), 2010. Reprints and permissions:
sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav, Vol. 27(4): 473–493.
DOI: 10.1177/0265407510363508

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474 Journal of Social and Personal Relationships 27(4)

Anything less than mad, passionate, extraordinary love is a waste of time.

There are too many mediocre things in life to deal with and love shouldn’t
be one of them. – Dream for an Insomniac (DeBartolo, 1996)

As this movie quote illustrates, romantic love is thought to be passionate

and exciting. It is a phenomenon that seems to transcend age (Tennov, 1979),
time (Hatfield & Rapson, 1993), and place (Janowiak & Fischer, 1992), but
how does one get to the point of experiencing romantic love? The purpose
of the present research was to investigate the onset of romantic love, or
falling in love (Aron, Dutton, Aron, & Iverson, 1989). Samples of American
and Chinese individuals provided narrative accounts of their most recent
falling in love experience and answered questions pertaining to that experi-
ence. The narratives and other responses were analyzed for antecedents or
precursors of falling in love, and then considered in the context of culture,
ethnicity, gender, and speed to assess how the social environment influences
these experiences.
Given that romantic love is an important part of our lives, one would also
expect the same of falling in love. Emotional, intense situations such as
falling in love tend to be memorable (Talarico, LaBar, & Rubin, 2004). This
transformation from not loving to loving (Aron et al., 2008; Rubin, 1973;
Tennov, 1979) has received far less attention by researchers than the initial
stage of attraction, before falling in love, or the early stage of romantic love,
which includes the onset of falling in love but focuses more on the “honey-
moon” period thereafter. Nevertheless, there is a small but important body
of research specifically on falling in love, and the present research builds
on that foundation.

Defining the precursors of falling in love

Precursors to falling in love have been delineated by researchers in a variety
of disciplines. Aron and colleagues’ (1989) systematic review of these pre-
cursors provides the basis for the methodology used in the present studies.
Another review was published more recently by Pines (2005), although few
relevant studies have appeared since even the earlier Aron et al. (1989)
paper. The following list is based primarily on these reviews.
Reciprocal liking is the interest expressed between two people, through
mutual disclosure and other such actions; it is the other liking the self and
the self liking the other as a function of the other’s interest. Appearance
refers to attractiveness of the other’s general physical characteristics (e.g.,
good-looking, nice body). Personality refers to attractiveness of the other’s
personality (e.g., intelligent, humorous). Similarity means having things in
common, including attitudes, experiences, interests, and personal factors
such as appearance, personality, and family background. Familiarity includes
exposure to the other or spending time together. Social influence is the
approval or disapproval expressed by the self’s or the other’s social network
of friends and family. Filling needs means having the self’s needs met or
meeting the needs of the other (e.g., he makes me happy, she buys me little
presents that show she cares), and typically implies characteristics that are

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Riela et al.: Falling in love precursors 475

highly valued and beneficial in relationship maintenance (e.g., compassion,

respect). Arousal can refer to strong physiological reactions (e.g., irregular
heart rate, rapid breathing) that may occur when meeting the other in an
unexpected circumstance and/or the misattribution of arousal to attraction.
Readiness means being emotionally or physically prepared for seeking a
romantic relationship, such as having just broken up with someone and
seeking comfort in a new partner. Specific cues are particular characteristics
of the other (e.g., smile, shape of the eyes), that are relevant to the perceiver
in producing strong attractions. This is not the same as attractiveness in
general but refers to highly idiosyncratic features of potential love objects
that are specifically important to the individual; this is what Binet (1887)
described as normal fetishes. Isolation refers to being alone with the other.
Lastly, mysteriousness can be viewed as a trait of the other (e.g., there’s
something I want to know about him/her) or uncertainty about the circum-
stances.

Investigating the precursors

Three major studies have specifically investigated the aforementioned pre-
cursors to falling in love. Aron and colleagues (1989) examined the precur-
sors in North American samples of young and middle-aged adults via
narrative accounts (Studies 1 and 2) and questionnaires (Study 3). The
participants were asked to consider falling in love as “some experience in
which you went from not knowing or caring much about a person to a very
strong positive feeling towards the person” (p. 248), and then wrote about
their experiences or answered questions pertaining to the precursors. In all
three studies, reciprocal liking and desirable characteristics (appearance
and personality) emerged as most frequently mentioned or as most import-
ant in the falling in love accounts. The frequency and importance of other
precursors varied across the studies. Gender, ethnicity, and age differences
were not reported.
Another study by Pines (2001) assessed a subset of the precursors. Pines
analyzed interviews with young adults from the US and Israel about their
current or most recent romantic relationship. The interviews were content
analyzed for whether particular precursors were mentioned. For the US
sample, the most frequently mentioned precursors were personality and
appearance. There were also significant gender differences in appearance
(men > women), personality (women > men), and arousal (women > men),
but not in similarity, familiarity, filling needs, or reciprocal liking.
In addition, Sprecher et al. (1994) collected questionnaire data from
college students in the US, Japan, and Russia. The participants were asked
to consider their most recent falling in love experience and answered ques-
tions about potential precursors. Although Sprecher et al. present data for
all three countries, we only highlight findings for the American and Japanese
participants. Among American and Japanese participants, the most import-
ant precursors were reciprocal liking and personality. Significant gender
differences were found in reciprocal liking (women > men), appearance
(men > women), personality (women > men), and social standing (women

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476 Journal of Social and Personal Relationships 27(4)

> men), but not for similarity, familiarity, social influence, readiness, specific
cues, isolation, or mysteriousness. Strikingly, in spite of relatively large
samples, there were no significant cultural differences in the relative import-
ance of most precursors. Only social standing exhibited a significant cultural
difference (Japanese > US).

Culture, ethnicity, gender, and speed

Culture and ethnicity, particularly the roles of individualism and collectivism,
seem clearly important factors in the context of falling in love. The goals of
personal fulfillment and achieving emotional intimacy in relationships are
often salient in individualistic cultures (Kagitcibasi, 2005). An example is
the belief that love should be the primary basis for marriage (Levine, Sato,
Hashimoto, & Verma, 1995; Sprecher et al., 1994). In contrast, the emphasis
on family, comradeship, obligations to others, and altruism are the norm in
collectivistic cultures (Dion & Dion, 1993). It has also been noted that indi-
vidualistic people, such as North Americans, are more emotionally expres-
sive (Kito, 2005; Tsai & Levenson, 1997) and experience emotions more
strongly (Gao, 2001; Markus & Kitayama, 1991) when compared with collec-
tivistic cultural contexts, such as those found in many Asian societies.
The concept of power distance is related to the individualism-collectivism
dimension. Hofstede (1991) explains that power distance is a measure of
dependence or inequality among people, such as the authority of a parent
over a child or the authority of a supervisor over an employee. In a major
study of IBM workers in 53 societies, Hofstede found that societies low in
power distance tended to be more individualistic (e.g., the US, Australia)
and societies high in power distance tended to be more collectivistic (e.g.,
China, India). Therefore, investigating falling in love using groups polarized
on these dimensions, such as the US and China (as in the present research),
seemed particularly interesting and likely to provide clearer results than
would a comparison of societies with less differentiation.
The social norms of independence and interdependence may influence
gender differences in precursors to falling in love (Cross & Madson, 1997;
Kashima et al., 1995). Typically, men have been characterized as being more
goal or task oriented and women as more social or relationally oriented.
Likewise, women tend to incorporate relationships into their sense of self
more so than men (Miller, 1986). The differences between men and women
have also been referred to as agency versus communion (Eagly & Steffan,
1984) and competence versus warmth (Fiske, Cuddy, & Glick, 2007). These
distinctions are highlighted in research on mate preferences (e.g., appear-
ance and personality, Buss et al., 1990; filling needs, Hatfield & Sprecher,
1995) and communal relationships (e.g., filling needs, Mills & Clark, 2001).
Finally, the importance of precursors may vary as a function of the rate
or speed of the falling in love experience. Falling in love is often considered
intense, volatile, and rapid (e.g., Aron et al., 1989; Hatfield & Rapson, 1993;
Tennov, 1979). One example is the well-established link between heightened
arousal and romantic attraction (Foster, Witcher, Campbell, & Green, 1998).
However, falling in love experiences for some individuals can be gradual.

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Riela et al.: Falling in love precursors 477

Two studies, although not focused on precursors of falling in love per se,
suggest that whether falling in love is rapid or gradual may be strongly
related to different precursors or to individuals who value different precur-
sors. Sangrador and Yela (2000) found that individuals who fell in love
rapidly or at first sight placed more emphasis on physical appearance than
did individuals who fell in love gradually. Barelds and Barelds-Dijkstra
(2007) reported that partners who fell in love gradually were more similar
to one another in terms of extraversion, emotional stability, and autonomy
personality traits than were partners who fell in love more rapidly or at first
sight. We speculate that speed may be heavily influenced by dispositional
variables, such as one’s personality and mate preferences, but situational
factors such as readiness to enter into a relationship or arousal at the time
of meeting the person may also play an important role.

The present research

Two studies were conducted. Study 1 was a replication and extension of
Aron et al. (1989, Studies 1 and 2), which used a narrative method. Such a
narrative method is useful because respondents are not privy to or limited
by the experimenter’s preconceived categories, as would be the case with
forced-choice questions. In a related vein, whereas controlled experimental
methods tend to focus on short-term or lower levels of attraction, narratives
offer the opportunity to examine various levels of attraction and experi-
ence. Moreover, narratives focus on those aspects of experience that are
most salient to participants, independent of actual events. Study 1 extended
the Aron et al. method in two major ways: (a) the examination of speed of
falling in love as fast or slow, and more importantly, (b) the comparison of
two ethnic groups in the US (Whites and Asians).
Study 2 replicated and expanded upon Study 1. First, we obtained samples
in the US (Whites and Asians) and in China, a country not studied in any
of the previous precursor research (Aron et al., 1989; Pines, 2001; Sprecher
et al., 1994). As noted before, this comparison provides a strong contrast of
individualistic and collectivistic cultural contexts. Second, we simultaneously
employed both narratives and self-ratings, something not done in any of the
previous precursor research. This permitted us to investigate the precursors
as spontaneously recalled and as recognized when prompted, and to com-
pare results across methods.
Based on the previous precursor studies, variables influencing love experi-
ences (culture, ethnicity, gender, and speed), and our own reasoning extrap-
olating from the general love literature, we generated the following four
hypotheses.

Reciprocal liking, appearance, and personality should be the most

frequently mentioned and rated most important among the precursors to
falling in love.
The frequency of mention and rated importance of appearance and arousal
should be greater for White-Americans; personality, social influence, and
filling needs should be greater for Asian-Americans (i.e., individuals with

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478 Journal of Social and Personal Relationships 27(4)

origins in China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, India, and the Pacific Islands). The
same pattern should be obtained for comparisons of the US and China.
The frequency of mention and rated importance of appearance and speci-
fic cues should be greater for men; reciprocal liking, personality, filling
needs, and arousal should be greater for women.
The frequency of mention and rated importance of appearance, arousal,
and specific cues should be greater for those falling in love rapidly; simi-
larity and familiarity should be greater for those falling in love gradually.

Study 1

Method

Participants. The participants were 127 undergraduate students (58 men and
69 women), mean age 23.07 years (SD = 7.38, Range = 17–58), recruited from
a public, state university in the Western US. Ethnic backgrounds were White/
European-American (40%) and Asian-American (60%; mostly Chinese).
Gender and ethnicity were not significantly associated. There was no gender
difference in age; however, White-Americans were older than Asian-
Americans (M = 28.08 and 19.71, respectively), t(125) = 7.53, p < .001. The
relatively high average age for the White-Americans is not a function of
outliers; returning adult students at this university are not uncommon, and
most of the returning adult students were White-Americans. Thus, age was
included as a covariate in the analyses of the narrative precursors.
All participants had fallen in love at least once and the number of times
in love averaged 2.13 (SD = 1.07). The participants wrote about their most
recent falling in love experience, which occurred an average of 3.01 years
prior to this study (SD = 3.74). Narrative accounts averaged 82.81 words
(SD = 67.94). Significant ethnic differences were found for the number of
times in love and recency of love, but not narrative length. White-Americans
had been in love a greater number of times than Asian-Americans (M = 2.41
and 1.93, respectively), t(125) = 2.52, p = .013. Asian-Americans recalled
more recent love experiences than White-Americans (M = 2.06 and 4.42,
respectively), t(115) = 3.50, p = .001. Men and women did not differ in
number of times in love, recency of love, or narrative length. Age was posi-
tively correlated with number of times in love, r(127) = .39, p < .001, and
also positively correlated with recency of love, r(117) = .62, p < .001; younger
individuals recalled more recent falling in love experiences. Age was not
significantly related to narrative length.

Procedure. The participants completed the survey either in our laboratory

or as part of a testing session that included other unrelated studies. Surveys
instructed participants to describe their most recent falling in love experi-
ence (i.e., “Please write a brief description of what happened when you fell
in love (the most recent time). What led up to it, how were you feeling, what

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Riela et al.: Falling in love precursors 479

events occurred, etc.?”). Falling in love was not defined for participants. The
participants were given as much time as they needed, but typically spent
5–10 minutes writing the narrative.They were given a half page to write their
response when the study was conducted in the laboratory, so as to limit the
size of the questionnaire packet, but were told they could use additional
paper if needed. They were given a full page to write their response when
the questionnaire was distributed during mass testing. Neither narrative
length nor the precursor results were affected by data collection context.
The narratives were content analyzed by four coders for the incidence of
each precursor and for speed of falling in love. Percent agreement was used
to assess inter-rater reliability. Kappa could not be computed for all precur-
sors, because in some cases coders used only one rating category, typically
for less frequent precursors (J. Cohen, 1960; B. Cohen, 2008). The coders
worked independently and were blind to participant ethnicity and gender
(except for what could be inferred from the narratives); only one coder was
aware of the study’s hypotheses.
The coders assessed the incidence (or mention) of the precursors to falling
in love presented in the introduction. Precursors mentioned in the narratives
were coded as present and precursors not mentioned were coded as absent.
Although coders were provided with a list of the precursors, they could also
make note of any aspect of a narrative that seemed particularly significant
or unusual. Following the protocol of Aron et al. (1989), in cases of disagree-
ment, a precursor was marked as present in the final dataset if any coder
determined it as present. Some narratives (15%) did not mention any of
the precursors. The average inter-rater agreement across precursors was
84% (98% for specific cues, 95% for isolation, 95% for mysteriousness, 94%
for social influence, 93% for personality, 93% for readiness, 90% for simi-
larity, 86% for appearance, 73% for filling needs, 71% for reciprocal liking,
71% for arousal, and 65% for familiarity).
Speed of falling in love was coded as fast, slow, or unknown. The coders
considered whether there was a relatively short period during which there
was a strong upsurge of attraction, or if it was basically just gradual, over
time. Thus, fast was defined as love occurring in a relatively short period of
time or because of a strong upsurge of attraction. Slow was defined as love
occurring gradually over time or occurring without an upsurge of attrac-
tion. When ambiguous, speed was coded as unknown (26% of the sample);
these narratives were typically very short. Disagreements regarding speed
were handled by using ratings of the “expert” coder who assessed the
majority of narratives and had the highest agreement compared with other
coders. The average inter-rater agreement for speed of falling in love was
67%. Example narratives and coding are available upon request.

Results

Overview of precursors. The precursors’ frequency of mention in the narra-

tives, organized from highest to lowest, were as follows: 82% reciprocal
liking, 71% familiarity, 47% arousal, 39% filling needs, 36% similarity, 23%

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480 Journal of Social and Personal Relationships 27(4)

appearance, 23% personality, 18% readiness, 11% social influence, 9%

isolation, 6% specific cues, and 6% mysteriousness. A repeated-measures
analysis of variance (ANOVA) illustrated significant variation in the narra-
tive precursors, F(11, 1023) = 40.18, p < .001. Bonferroni-corrected pairwise
comparisons confirmed that reciprocal liking and familiarity, although not
significantly different from one another, were mentioned significantly more
often than the remaining precursors (reciprocal liking: ps < .001; familiarity:
ps ≤ .05).

Overview of speed. Based on coders’ assessments of speed, 40% of partici-

pants fell in love quickly, 34% fell in love slowly, and in 26% of cases, speed
was unknown. Those individuals whose speed was unknown were excluded
from further analyses, leaving 94 participants whose characteristics were
similar to the original sample.

Primary analyses of precursors. Hierarchical binary logistic regressions were

computed (Peng, Lee, & Ingersoll, 2002; Warner, 2008). The predictors were
ethnicity, gender, and speed. The covariates were age, number of times in
love, and narrative length. Recency of love was not included as a covariate
due to missing values for this variable. However, considering those partici-
pants without missing values on this variable, recency was not significantly
correlated with any precursor and did not interact significantly with ethnic-
ity, gender, or speed. The criterions were the precursors, coded as 0 = not
mentioned in narrative and 1 = mentioned in narrative.
Predictors were simultaneously entered in four blocks: the first block
contained the covariates, the second block contained the main effects, the
third block contained the two-way interactions, and the fourth block con-
tained the three-way interaction. The change in chi-square (∆χ2) was used
to assess goodness-of-fit for each block of predictors, with the change in
Nagelkerke’s R2 (∆R2) representing the proportion of explained variance.
The Wald statistic (Wald) was used to determine the significance of the
categorical predictors. Our criteria for significance were p ≤ .05 for blocks,
(∆R2 ≥ .04 for blocks (representing at least a small effect size; Cohen, 1988),
and p ≤ .05 for individual predictors. Significant results were interpreted
using the precursors’ frequency of mention in the narrative accounts.
The block of main effects was significant for arousal (∆χ2 = 10.18, p = .017,
∆R2 = .13) and filling needs (∆χ2 = 9.94, p = .019, ∆R2 = .13). Ethnicity was
a significant predictor of arousal (Wald = 4.30, p = .038), with this precursor
mentioned more often by White-Americans (53%) compared with Asian-
Americans (40%). Speed was also a significant predictor of arousal (Wald
= 4.45, p = .035); the fast group (53%) mentioned arousal more often than
the slow group (40%). Gender emerged as a significant predictor of filling
needs (Wald = 5.40, p = .020); women mentioned filling needs more often
than men. The remaining precursors were not significantly predicted by the
block of main effects.
Inspection of the two-way interaction block showed a significant effect for
personality, ∆χ2 = 8.58, p = .035, ∆R2 = .11. The gender × speed interaction

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Riela et al.: Falling in love precursors 481

emerged as a significant predictor, Wald = 4.88, p = .027. Personality was

mentioned more often by men in the fast group than men in the slow group
(32% and 17%), but women in the slow group mentioned personality more
often than women in the fast group (32% and 14%). The remaining pre-
cursors were not significantly predicted by the two-way interaction block.
None of the precursors were significantly predicted by the three-way inter-
action block. (All results are available upon request.)

Discussion
It was expected that reciprocal liking, appearance, and personality would
be the most frequently mentioned precursors to falling in love. In partial
support of this hypothesis, reciprocal liking and familiarity were most
frequently mentioned. Ethnic differences were expected for appearance and
arousal (greater for White-Americans), plus for personality, social influ-
ence, and filling needs (greater for Asian-Americans). This hypothesis was
supported for one precursor (arousal); others showed no significant ethnic
difference. We also expected gender differences in appearance and specific
cues (greater for men), plus for reciprocal liking, personality, filling needs,
and arousal (greater for women). This hypothesis was supported for one
precursor (filling needs); others showed no significant gender difference.
Finally, we expected we might find speed differences for appearance, arousal,
and specific cues (greater for the fast group), plus for similarity and famili-
arity (greater for the slow group). This hypothesis was supported for one
precursor (arousal); others showed no significant speed difference.
The general lack of strong ethnic and gender differences was surprising.
These findings may be a reflection of our sample (young college students),
more recent social norms, and low power distance in the US, or the accultur-
ation of Asian-Americans to independence norms. For speed, however, it is
unclear whether the lack of differences reflects the population or is a statis-
tical issue. Many participants were excluded because their narratives were
not interpretable for speed of falling in love, which lowered statistical power.
Likewise, the coding for speed, although as strong as possible given the
available information, was less than optimal as the inter-rater agreement was
relatively low. The high exclusion rate, low agreement, and lack of a more
direct measure for speed (e.g., participant ratings) are causes for concern
regarding the reliability and validity of our measure of this construct.
Finally, narratives do give some insight into aspects of falling in love that
spontaneously come to mind in a recall context without explicit prompting
for specific precursors. However, a drawback is that narratives are only
adequate for readily accessible memories of the experience. Narrative
methods do not tell us about aspects of the experience that may be cogni-
tively available, but do not readily come to mind. One way such aspects can
be accessed is by asking participants to indicate whether or not each precur-
sor had been part of the experience. This was in fact done by Aron et al.
(1989, Study 3) and Sprecher et al. (1994), although in those studies narra-
tives were not collected so a comparison of the two information sources was
not possible.

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482 Journal of Social and Personal Relationships 27(4)

The purpose of the second study was to address these limitations by

collecting both narratives and self-ratings of precursors and speed from
people in distinct cultural contexts representative of individualistic and
collectivistic societies (the US and China).

Study 2

Method

Participants. The participants were 239 undergraduate students from a

public, state university in the northeastern US (n = 161) and from two public
universities in a major urban area in northeastern China (n = 78). The US
sample consisted of 50 men and 111 women (mean age = 21.74 years, SD
= 5.98, Range = 18–54) whose cultural/ethnic backgrounds were White/
European-American (69%) and Asian-American (31%; mostly Chinese
and Japanese). The China sample consisted of 29 men and 49 women (mean
age = 21.69 years, SD = 2.00, Range = 18–27) whose cultural/ethnic back-
ground was native Chinese (100%). Across all participants, gender and
culture/ethnicity were not significantly associated. There was no gender
difference in age. However, there was a significant cultural/ethnic differ-
ence in age, F(2, 236) = 4.25, p = .015. White-Americans were significantly
older than Asian-Americans (M = 22.50 and 20.04, respectively; p = .012);
Native Chinese participants (M = 21.69) did not differ significantly from
either group. Age was included as a covariate in the main analyses.
All participants had fallen in love at least once and the number of times
in love averaged 1.72 (SD = 0.92). The participants wrote about their most
recent falling in love experience, which occurred approximately 2.16 years
prior to this study (SD = 3.20). Narrative accounts averaged 55.44 words
(SD = 37.90). Narrative length for both American and Chinese participants
was based on the original, un-translated narrative accounts as the coding for
precursors was primarily done in the narratives’ original language. Nonethe-
less, a check on narrative length was conducted on a subset of the Chinese
accounts; there was no significant difference between the original and trans-
lated versions of narrative length, t (16) = 0.16, p = ns.
Significant cultural/ethnic differences were found for recency of love,
F(2, 196) = 3.35, p = .037, and narrative length, F(2, 236) = 22.50, p < .001.
Regarding recency, native Chinese participants recalled more recent love
experiences than White-Americans (M = 1.49 and 2.79, respectively; p =
.032); Asian-Americans (M = 2.06) did not differ significantly from either
group. Regarding narrative length, White-Americans and Asian-Americans
(M = 63.79 and 70.36, respectively) wrote longer narratives than native
Chinese participants (M = 34.00, ps < .001), but did not differ significantly
from one another. There was no cultural/ethnic difference in number of
times in love. A significant gender difference was found for narrative length,
t(237) = 2.12, p = .035, with women writing longer narratives than men
(M = 59.06 and 48.11, respectively). There were no significant gender differ-
ences in number of times in love or recency of love.

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Riela et al.: Falling in love precursors 483

Procedure. All materials were presented in English to the American parti-

cipants and in Chinese to the native Chinese participants. Two graduate
students fluent in Chinese and English independently forward- and back-
translated materials into Chinese. The procedures and narrative coding in
Study 1 were used in Study 2, with additional components described below.
Prior to the narratives, participants assessed the speed of their falling in
love experience. They were asked, “How quickly did you fall in love?” and
could respond (1) very fast, (2) fast, (3) slow, or (4) very slow. We inten-
tionally created a forced-choice scale with no midpoint given, so the con-
ceptualization of falling in love was either rapid or not. Then, after writing
narratives, the participants were asked to rate 24 items based on the pre-
cursors that could have occurred prior to or during their most recent falling
in love experience (e.g., “you shared personal things about yourself” and
“circumstances caused you to spend a lot of time together”). Responses
ranged from (0) did not happen/not at all influential to (4) extremely influ-
ential. This section constituted participants’ self-ratings of the precursors.
The narratives were assessed for the precursors (present or absent) and
for speed (fast, slow, or unknown). Few narratives (6%) mention none of
the precursors and 27% of narratives could not be coded for speed. Coding
of the American narratives was conducted by four American coders fluent
in English. Coding of the Chinese narratives was conducted by two Chinese
coders fluent in Chinese and English. One American coder who coded
American narratives also coded a subset of the Chinese narratives after the
narratives were translated. Coders worked independently and were blind to
participant culture, ethnicity, and gender (except for what could be inferred
from the narratives); only one judge was aware of the study’s hypotheses.
The average inter-rater agreement across the precursors was 88% (99% for
specific cues, 99% for mysteriousness, 98% for appearance, 97% for readi-
ness, 96% for isolation, 96% for social influence, 91% for personality, 89%
for similarity, 84% for arousal, 79% for filling needs, 74% for reciprocal
liking, and 71% for familiarity). Inter-rater agreement for speed of falling
in love was 75%.
The self-rated precursors were transformed into ipsative scores to control
for participants’ response tendencies (Bartholomew & Horowitz, 1991;
Sprecher et al., 1994). The grand mean and standard deviation of all pre-
cursors were used to calculate z-scores that reflected the importance of each
precursor relative to the other precursors for each participant. This allowed
for the comparison of participants, not in terms of how high they rated a
precursor, but of how high they rated a precursor relative to other pre-
cursors. Positive values indicated importance and negative values indicated
unimportance, with greater absolute values reflecting greater magnitude of
importance or unimportance.

Results

Overview of precursors. How frequently precursors were mentioned in narra-

tives, organized from highest to lowest, were: 70% reciprocal liking, 52%
filling needs, 51% familiarity, 41% arousal, 33% personality, 26% similarity,

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484 Journal of Social and Personal Relationships 27(4)

9% social influence, 8% appearance, 8% readiness, 5% isolation, 1% specific

cues, and 1% mysteriousness. A repeated-measures ANOVA illustrated
significant variation in the narrative precursors, F(11, 2618) = 99.92, p < .001.
Bonferroni-corrected pairwise comparisons confirmed that reciprocal liking
was mentioned significantly more often than all other precursors (p < .001).
The self-rated precursors’ average relative importance, organized from
highest to lowest ipsative scores, were as follows: .75 personality, .33 recip-
rocal liking, .19 familiarity, .18 specific cues, .14 filling needs, .09 appear-
ance, –.02 similarity, –.23 readiness, –.36 isolation, –.49 mysteriousness, –.57
arousal, and –.70 social influence. A repeated-measures ANOVA illustrated
significant variation in the self-rated precursors, F(11, 2618) = 80.73, ps <
.001. Bonferroni-corrected pairwise comparisons confirmed that personality
was significantly more important than the remaining precursors (p < .001).
Point-biserial correlations between the narrative and self-rated versions
of each precursor were computed. Small-to-moderate positive correlations,
indicating that greater frequency of mention in the narratives covaried with
higher relative importance ratings, were obtained only for reciprocal liking,
r(239) = .19, p = .003, appearance, r(239) = .13, p = .042, personality, r(239)
= .22, ps = .001, similarity, r(239) = .17, p = .008, and arousal, r(239) = .33,
p < .001.

Overview of speed. Based on coders’ assessments of speed, 38% of parti-

cipants fell in love fast, 35% fell in love slow, and in 27% of cases speed
was unknown. The participants’ self-ratings of speed revealed that 14% fell
in love very fast, 42% fell in love fast, 36% fell in love slow, and 8% fell in
love very slow. Coders correctly identified only 52% of the sample as falling
in love fast (fast or very fast) or slow (slow or very slow). Given that coders’
speed assessments agreed with participant ratings only at chance levels,
and that low inter-rater agreement occurred in both studies, we employed
participant-rated speed for the remaining analyses. The very fast and fast
speed groups were combined and the slow and very slow speed groups were
combined.

Primary analyses of narrative precursors. Statistical analyses followed Study

1. Predictors were culture/ethnicity, gender, and speed; covariates were age,
number of times in love, and narrative length. (Recency of love was not
included as a covariate due to missing values.) Given that culture/ethnicity
is a categorical predictor with three groups, it was contrast coded into two
variables representing the comparison of American versus Chinese parti-
cipants (culture) and White-Americans versus Asian-Americans (ethnicity).
Narrative precursors represented criterion variables (0 = not mentioned
in narrative and 1 = mentioned in narrative).
The block of main effects was significant for reciprocal liking (∆χ2 = 13.45,
p = .009, ∆R2 = .07), personality (∆χ2 = 48.16, p < .001, ∆R2 = .24), familiar-
ity (∆χ2 = 33.56, p < .001, ∆R2 = .14), filling needs (∆χ2 = 39.65, p < .001,
∆R2 = .20), and arousal (∆χ2 = 76.23, p < .001, ∆R2 = .35). Culture was a
significant predictor of these five precursors. Familiarity was mentioned

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Riela et al.: Falling in love precursors 485

considerably more often by American participants compared with Chinese

participants (68% versus 18%; Wald = 22.63, p < .001). In contrast, Chinese
participants mentioned reciprocal liking (72% versus 70%; Wald = 8.59, p =
.003), personality (55% versus 22%; Wald = 35.17, p < .001), filling needs
(72% versus 42%; Wald = 27.30, p < .001), and arousal (78% versus 23%;
Wald = 52.10, p < .001) more often than American participants. Gender
emerged as a significant predictor of filling needs (Wald = 7.43, p = .006);
women mentioned filling needs more often than men (58% versus 39%).
The remaining precursors could not be predicted by the block of main
effects, which also means that ethnicity and speed were not significant pre-
dictors of any precursor. None of the precursors could be predicted by the
block of two-way interactions or the block of three-way interactions. (All
results are available upon request.)

Primary analyses of self-rated precursors. The analyses followed similar

statistical procedures as the narrative accounts, with the following modifi-
cations: hierarchical linear regressions were computed, narrative length was
excluded as a covariate, the F-statistic (∆F) was used to assess the signifi-
cance of each block of predictors, and the t-statistic (t) was used to deter-
mine the significance of the predictors.
The block of main effects was significant for reciprocal liking (∆F = 3.31,
p = .012, ∆R2 = .05), appearance (∆F = 8.13, p < .001, ∆R2 = .12), similarity
(∆F = 3.34, p = .011, ∆R2 = .05), social influence (∆F = 3.71, p = .006, ∆R2 =
.06), arousal (∆F = 17.92, p < .001, ∆R2 = .23), readiness (∆F = 4.11, p = .003,
∆R2 = .07), and specific cues (∆F = 3.26, p = .013, ∆R2 = .05). Culture was a
significant predictor of appearance, similarity, social influence, arousal,
readiness, and specific cues. American participants gave higher relative
importance ratings for appearance (.23 versus –.19; t = 3.66, p < .001), simi-
larity (.07 versus –.20; t = 3.43, p = .001), readiness (–.08 versus –.53; t =
2.99, p = .003), and specific cues (.26 versus .02; t = 2.32, p = .021) compared
with Chinese participants. In contrast, Chinese participants gave higher
relative importance ratings for arousal (–.19 versus –.75; t = –7.84, p < .001)
and social influence (–.50 versus –.80; t = –3.69, p < .001) compared with
American participants. It is worth noting that despite group differences,
social influence, arousal, and readiness were relatively unimportant for both
groups. Gender emerged as a significant predictor of appearance (.30 for
men versus –.01 for women; t = –3.32, p < .001) and specific cues (.36 for men
versus .09 for women; t = –2.76, p = .006); both precursors were relatively
more important for men than women. Speed was a significant predictor of
reciprocal liking and appearance. Reciprocal liking was relatively more
important for the slow group compared with the fast group (.39 versus .28;
t = 2.77, p = .006), whereas appearance was relatively more important for
the fast group compared with the slow group (.21 versus –.05; t = –2.12,
p = .035). The remaining precursors could not be predicted by the block of
main effects. None of the precursors could be predicted by the block of two-
way interactions or the block of three-way interactions. (All results are
available upon request.)

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486 Journal of Social and Personal Relationships 27(4)

Supplementary analyses of culture/ethnicity. Additional analyses were con-

ducted to assess whether the preponderance of Asian-Americans in the US
subsample inadvertently influenced the results. This was accomplished by
re-running the regressions using the complementary orthogonal contrast of
culture/ethnicity, comparing Asian-Americans with native Chinese partici-
pants and White-Americans with the combined group of Asian participants.
Although the significance of blocks would be unaffected, the significance of
individual predictors could change. If both pairs of comparisons are signifi-
cant for a given precursor, these results would be completely consistent with
the cultural differences previously reported; any other combination of signi-
ficance and/or non-significance would need to be considered further.
Regarding the narratives, the block of main effects was significant for
reciprocal liking, personality, familiarity, filling needs, and arousal. Both pairs
of comparisons were significant predictors of personality, familiarity, filling
needs, and arousal (Walds > 8.50, ps < .01). These results are consistent with
the US–China cultural differences previously reported. In contrast, only the
Asian-American versus Chinese variable was significant for reciprocal liking
(Wald = 6.61, p = .010), which implies that Asian-Americans were instru-
mental to the US–China cultural difference for this precursor.
Regarding the self-ratings, the block of main effects was significant for
reciprocal liking, appearance, similarity, social influence, arousal, readiness,
and specific cues. Both pairs of comparisons were significant predictors of
appearance, arousal, and readiness (ts > 2.00, ps < .05) and, consequently,
are consistent with the US–China cultural differences previously reported.
In contrast, only the American-Asian versus Chinese variable was signifi-
cant for similarity, social influence, and specific cues (ts > 1.95, ps < .05),
which implies that Asian-Americans were instrumental to the US–China
cultural difference for these precursors. Furthermore, contrary to the narra-
tive findings, only the White American versus Asian-American and Chinese
variable was significant for reciprocal liking (t = 2.01, p = .045), which implies
that White-Americans were instrumental to the US–China cultural differ-
ence for this precursor.

Discussion
It was expected that reciprocal liking, appearance, and personality would
be the most frequently mentioned and most important precursors to falling
in love. According to the narrative accounts, the most frequently mentioned
precursor of falling in love was reciprocal liking. The incidence of recipro-
cal liking is consistent with our hypothesis and mirrors Study 1 findings. In
contrast, the self-ratings of the precursors showed that personality was most
important to participants. This emphasis on personality is also consistent
with our hypothesis.
A number of differences emerged in the analyses of culture/ethnicity. We
had anticipated that the frequency of mention and rated importance of
appearance and arousal would be greater for participants with individual-
istic orientations (American, White-American), whereas personality, social
influence, and filling needs would be greater for participants with collec-

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Riela et al.: Falling in love precursors 487

tivistic orientations (Chinese, Asian-American). Two sets of analyses were

conducted using orthogonal contrasts. The first set of analyses compared
American and Chinese participants, as well as White-Americans and Asian-
Americans. For American participants, appearance (self-ratings), familiarity
(narratives), similarity (self-ratings), specific cues (self-ratings), and readi-
ness (self-ratings) were mentioned more often or rated as relatively more
important compared with Chinese participants. Consistent with Study 1, no
ethnic differences appeared between the US groups in either narratives or
self-ratings. For Chinese participants, reciprocal liking (narratives), person-
ality (narratives), filling needs (narratives), social influence (self-ratings), and
arousal (narratives and self-ratings) were mentioned more often, or rated
as relatively more important, compared with American participants.
Supplementary analyses compared Asian-Americans and Chinese partici-
pants, as well as White-Americans and the combined group of Asians. From
these analyses, it appeared that the aforementioned cultural differences in
reciprocal liking, similarity, social influence, and specific cues were influ-
enced by a particular US ethnic group rather than Americans as a whole.
In the majority of these cases, however, Asian-Americans differed from the
native Chinese participants. Because we expected Asian-Americans to be
more individualistic than Chinese participants, these latter results do not
qualify the findings of the first analysis.
Few significant results appeared for gender and speed. Gender differences
in appearance and specific cues (greater for men), as well as reciprocal
liking, personality, filling needs, and arousal (greater for women), were
expected. Based on the narratives, there was a significant gender difference
in filling needs, which was consistent with our hypothesis and the Study 1
results. Based on the self-ratings, predicted gender differences emerged for
appearance and specific cues. In addition, it was expected that speed differ-
ences would be obtained for appearance, arousal, and specific cues (greater
for the fast group), as well as similarity and familiarity (greater for the slow
group). No speed differences were obtained in the narrative precursors, but
the self-ratings indicated that the fast speed group rated appearance as
more important, and reciprocal liking as less important, compared with the
slow speed group. The result pertaining to appearance was predicted by our
hypothesis, but reciprocal liking was not. Although the aforementioned
gender and speed findings from Study 2 are promising, like Study 1, the data
were more uniform than anticipated.

General discussion

Building on earlier work (Aron et al., 1989; Pines, 2001; Sprecher et al.,
1994), the present research investigated 12 precursors to falling in love de-
lineated by social psychology, sociology, and research specifically on love.
Two studies were conducted using diverse methodologies (narratives and
self-ratings), cultures (the US and China), and ethnic groups within the US
(Whites and Asians). A relatively new variable, speed of falling in love, was

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488 Journal of Social and Personal Relationships 27(4)

also investigated. Because falling in love occurs in a social context, it was

expected that precursors to falling in love would differ by culture, ethnic-
ity, gender, and speed. Although ethnicity, gender, and speed had little to
no association with the precursors, culture clearly impacts falling in love.
Perceiving a liked other as liking the self (reciprocal liking) and the
partner’s desirable personality seemed to be the most important precursors
to falling in love. The relevance of reciprocal liking and personality sup-
ported our first hypothesis that these precursors, along with the partner’s
desirable appearance, would be most frequently mentioned and rated as
most important. These findings are consistent with prior research on precur-
sors (Aron et al., 1989; Sprecher et al., 1994) and mate preferences (Buss
et al., 1990), as well as more recent work on first dates (Mongeau, Jacobsen,
& Donnerstein, 2007), speed dating (Houser, Horan, & Furler, 2008), and
“online” relationship formation (Albright & Conran, 2003).

Influence of culture: The United States and China

Culture appears to be the most important factor influencing precursors of
falling in love. Specifically, Study 2 compared participants from the US and
China. The frequency and rated importance of appearance and arousal were
expected to be greater for American participants, whereas personality, social
influence, and filling needs were expected to be greater for Chinese partici-
pants. American participants’ emphasis on appearance, specific cues, and
readiness, as well as Chinese participants’ emphasis on reciprocal liking,
personality, filling needs, and social influence, are consistent with the individ-
ualism-collectivism distinction (Dion & Dion, 1993) and the independence-
interdependence concept often discussed in conjunction with this research
(Kashima et al., 1995).
A few results, however, require further consideration. Specifically, Amer-
icans placed greater emphasis on familiarity and similarity when compared
with the Chinese. The highly romanticized view of love in the US, leading
to clichés such as “love at first sight” and “opposites attract” in mass media
(Griffin, 2006), may have made the incidence of similarity and familiarity
in falling in love seem unlikely in real life, and hence more attractive. Also,
contrary to predictions, arousal (in both narratives and self-ratings) was
more important for Chinese participants compared with American partici-
pants. It may be that the uniqueness of experiencing a strong emotion (Gao,
2001) made the arousal associated with it more salient for Chinese parti-
cipants. In addition, social influence was relatively unimportant for both
Chinese and American participants. This finding is particularly surprising
given the Chinese participants’ collectivistic orientation and large power
distance (Hofstede, 1991).
The cultural analyses also illuminate the discrepancy between narratives
and self-ratings. Aside from the types of tasks given, a probable explanation
would be that a person’s native language and expression rules influenced
emotional expression and interpretation (Farrer, Tsuchiya, & Bagrowicz,
2008; Kashima, Kashima, Kim, & Gelfand, 2006; Kitayama & Ishii, 2002).
Because the narrative component of the present research was straightfor-

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Riela et al.: Falling in love precursors 489

ward (i.e., describe your experience), and high rates of reciprocal liking
were reported by both American and Chinese participants, it is doubtful
that emotional expressiveness was the cause of the discrepancy. It is more
likely that American and Chinese participants differentially interpreted the
questions pertaining to the self-rated precursors. This may be particularly
relevant for the Chinese sample, given that the questionnaire was originally
formulated in English. Nevertheless, it is clear that there are substantial
cultural differences in falling in love.

Influence of ethnicity, gender, and speed

Experiences of falling in love were expected to differ by ethnicity, such that
the frequency of mention and rated importance of appearance and arousal
would be greater for White-Americans, whereas personality, social influence,
and filling needs would be greater for Asian-Americans. Only a small, but
predicted, ethnic difference for arousal was significant in Study 1, but no
ethnic differences were found in Study 2. The individualism-collectivism
distinction (Dion & Dion, 1993) does not seem to apply in this instance.
Perhaps, as Kagitcibasi (2005) suggests, there is a healthy balance of auton-
omy and relatedness in these US samples. A more likely scenario is that
Asian-Americans have acculturated to US customs, as often happens with
immigrants and their offspring in host countries (Triandis, 2007). Yet a third
explanation is power distance; highly educated individuals, as in the present
studies, tend to have lower power distance (Hofstede, 1991). All in all, it
appears that these two US ethnic groups may have highly similar experi-
ences of falling in love.
It was also anticipated that experiences of falling in love would differ by
gender, such that the frequency of mention and rated importance of appear-
ance and specific cues would be greater for men, whereas reciprocal liking,
personality, filling needs, and arousal would be greater for women. Pre-
dicted gender differences were obtained for filling needs (women > men),
as well as appearance and specific cues (men > women). These results are
consistent with previous research on precursors (Pines, 2001; Sprecher et al.,
1994), mate preferences (Hatfield & Sprecher, 1995), and theorizing on
independence and interdependence (Cross & Madson, 1997). No significant
gender differences were found for the remaining precursors. The small
number of significant gender differences across studies and methods lends
support to Hyde’s (2005) gender-similarities hypothesis and suggests that
gender is not particularly influential on precursors of falling in love.
Speed was the last variable considered instrumental to understanding
experiences of falling in love. We expected that frequency of mention and
rated importance of appearance, arousal, and specific cues would be greater
for those falling in love rapidly, whereas similarity and familiarity would be
greater for those falling in love slowly. Assessments of speed in Study 1
revealed that many narratives could not be coded as either fast or slow.
The only speed difference obtained was for arousal, which was predicted and
consistent with the arousal-attraction effect (Foster et al., 1998). Because
coders’ assessments of speed in Study 2 agreed with participants’ self-ratings

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490 Journal of Social and Personal Relationships 27(4)

only at chance levels, self-rated speed was used in the analyses. No signifi-
cant speed group differences were apparent in the narrative precursors.
Based on self-ratings, speed differences emerged for reciprocal liking (slow
> fast) and appearance (fast > slow). The reciprocal liking difference was not
predicted, but may reflect a key aspect of falling in love gradually or may
be a function of the slow group having more time to determine reciprocity.
Another possibility is that some individuals falling in love quickly were
experiencing unrequited love – having fallen in love with others who could
not love them back (Aron, Aron, & Allen, 1998). The predicted difference
in appearance corresponds with Sangrador and Yela (2000), who found that
physical appearance was more important for individuals falling in love
rapidly or at first sight. It is unknown, though, whether speed influences
appearance or whether appearance influences speed. Overall, the consist-
ent lack of significant differences suggests that speed is not a particularly
strong influence on experiences of falling in love.

Limitations and future directions

The present research was not without its limitations. There are four areas
that require consideration: sample characteristics, statistical measurement
and methodology, the discrepancy between narratives and self-ratings, and
issues pertaining to ethnicity and culture.
Some characteristics of our samples may have unduly influenced our
findings. Participants in both studies were recruited from universities. The
majority of participants were young adults, although there was a fair amount
of variation in age. This potential confound was controlled for by the inclu-
sion of age as a covariate in the statistical analyses. A limitation in terms of
generalizability is that the samples all represented relatively highly educated
and middle-to-upper socio-economic status groups. Future research on
falling in love should be conducted using groups diverse in age, education,
and socio-economic status. The other limitation of our samples was the
amount of time elapsing between the falling in love experience and recall of
that experience, as memories generally change over time (Rajaram, 1993).
Therefore, samples of recent love experiences should be solicited.
Regarding statistical measurement and methodology, reliability of coding
varied for precursors and speed. Although some constructs (e.g., specific
cues, isolation) were coded very reliably, other constructs (e.g., speed, famil-
iarity) did not meet the common .70 standard for reliability (Cohen, 2008).
This may be due, in part, to the many coders utilized for assessing the narra-
tives, and having only one coder assess both American and Chinese narra-
tives. Second, the inclusion of covariates and the simultaneous entry of
predictors into the regressions made it more difficult to achieve significance
and could have been another source of noise in the analyses. We also
imposed specific criteria for determining significance; however, these steps
were taken to limit confounds (Tabachnick & Fidell, 2001). In general,
analyses with and without covariates were highly similar. A related issue is
that speed is likely a result (rather than a cause) of precursors. Thus, causal-
ity of speed and the precursors should be investigated via longitudinal

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Riela et al.: Falling in love precursors 491

studies. Other variables (e.g., intensity, due to its role in autobiographical

memory; Talarico et al., 2004) related to speed and the precursors should
be investigated as well.
Results from the narrative and self-rating methods were generally con-
gruent for non-significant effects and incongruent for significant ones.
Correlations between narrative and self-rated versions of each precursor
tended to be small (although some were significant). A reasonable explan-
ation would be that precursors that are spontaneously recalled (narratives)
and those that are prompted with structured items (self-ratings) generate
different kinds of meanings. We suspect that the narratives provide the
most important precursors, while self-ratings increased the accessibility of
a wider variety of precursors (Higgins & Bargh, 1987). In other words,
participants may have been describing major themes in the falling in love
narratives whereas specific details, such as isolation, were only recounted
when prompted. Given the opportunity to consider the importance of the
entire set of precursors, the participants could have engaged in an adjust-
ment or correction process (Trope & Gaunt, 2000). Thus, the narratives may
reflect the actual recollection of the falling in love experience and the self-
ratings may merely reflect knowledge that an event occurred (Rajaram,
1993). Future research could explore this possibility by having participants
make remember-know judgments for the precursors.
Finally, culture and ethnicity should be examined further. The precursors
of falling in love have been studied in the US and Canada (Aron et al.,
1989), Russia and Japan (Sprecher et al., 1994), Israel (Pines, 2001), and now
China. That leaves a multitude of societies to investigate, such as Hispanic-
and African-American ethnic groups in North America, as well as much of
the rest of the world. In addition, the precursors have been largely based
on North American samples and there may be other culture-specific pre-
cursors not heretofore considered. The consideration of traditionalism,
modernism, or acculturation would also complement future cultural/ethnic
studies (Triandis, 2007).

Conclusion

Falling in love is complex – it can occur swiftly or gradually, softly or to an

overwhelming degree. The precursors, delineated by scientists, appear to be
consistent in that they all are evident, even if to a small extent. Only a few
variations were found in the precursors as a function of ethnicity, gender,
or speed, but culture seems to play an important role in shaping the recall
of falling in love experiences. Therefore, while romantic love, including
falling in love, appear to transcend time and place (Aron et al., 2008), the
social world in which they take place provides a framework that gives this
universal experience many different flavors.

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492 Journal of Social and Personal Relationships 27(4)

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