What is love? You asked Google – here’s the answer

Every day millions of people ask Google life ’s most difficult questions. Our writers answer some of the commonest queriesExperts say the western ideal ofromantic love is constantly disappointing us. Which is a shame because our culture loves romantic love. It ’s an idea that pervades pop music, novels, TV and film. Somewhere out there our perfect match is waiting to meet us, so the theory goes. But maybe love isn’t really about The One. Maybe the early films ofRichard Curtis don ’t have all the answers.So what is love, actually? There are many answers to this question, says the anthropologist Anna Machin, but let ’s start with an evolutionary explanation. Basically, love helps a species to cooperate. “We need to cooperate to survive, to subsist, to learn, to reproduce and to raise our children,” she says. “Romantic and parental love is essentially the neurochemical reward for cooperating, which is co gnitively quite difficult.” It’s a kind of biological bribery, in other words.Continue reading...

Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - July 11, 2018 Category: Science Authors: Alfie Packham Tags: Relationships Life and style Anthropology Science Source Type: news