Evolution and Love

Can love be explained in evolutionary terms? Discuss.

Ok, this is totally out of the blue (no reference). People like things that will benifit them, edible food, a sturdy shelter, means of transportation, etc. Love is a subset of like. We love those things which will greatly benifit us. I'm not sure how a dog fits into my scenario. I'm making this up as I go. More enlightened comments are greatly appreciated.

[ZeeJustin]

Warm fuzzy feelings that accompany sex lead to reproduction. A species would die out if it never wanted to reproduce.

Hi Zeejustin,
I understand what you're saying, but why does a dog, or the color blue, or the sound of a wave in the ocean give us a warm fuzzy feeling?

[atrifix]

Why do we have warm fuzzy feelings of love even when no sex is involved (ex: long distance relationships)? Why do homosexuals find gay sex pleasant? Why don't we get those warm fuzzy feelings during rape?

[NobodysFreak]

I think we should start with where our definition of what love is came from. Romantic love as its portrayed in popular american culture is a socially constructed system. Our ideas of love aren't very old. Maybe around 400-500 years or so. Coupled with short life expectancies and hard lifestyles for much of humanity's existence, I'd go out on a limb and say that love as we know it had very little to do with human evolution. If anything, it's more of a product of our evolution.

The pleasure associated with sex, on the other hand, is a biological/evolutionary response. If evolution can make sex feel good, people will continue to populate the planet.

I think it has to do with childrearing.

Mammals have live young which require specialised attention and protection (often for many months), so it's natural that strong emotional bonds would evolve. Parents who can pay close attention to their infant's needs and emotional state - and are motivated to respond to them via the brain's pleasure pathways - have a huge evolutionary advantage over those that don't. Thus an underlying brain architecture evolves, which when combined with social experiences and sexual/mating urges, enables this thing we call 'love'.

That said, you should be careful when trying to explain psychology via evolution. It's not science and very easily becomes a shoehorning of poorly understood concepts to 'explain' what's observed. For example, some academics say that we're social animals because we had to learn to cooperate and hunt together in tough times - those that couldn't died out. While this may be partly true, it's a weak explanation with no evidence. Many animals that never hunted have highly advanced social skills, and animals like Orang Utans aren't that different from a human child in terms of social intelligence. An increase in the length of childhood, a change in how females selected mates, or a series of mutations increasing brain size (and thus the capacity to grasp concepts such as Theory Of Mind), can have similar effects, so be careful. Just because an evolutionary explanation 'makes sense' doesn't mean it is that way.

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Mammals have live young which require specialised attention and protection (often for many months), so it's natural that strong emotional bonds would evolve. Parents who can pay close attention to their infant's needs and emotional state - and are motivated to respond to them via the brain's pleasure pathways - have a huge evolutionary advantage over those that don't. Thus an underlying brain architecture evolves, which when combined with social experiences and sexual/mating urges, enables this thing we call 'love'.


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Ok, this explains why we love little beings with big eyes and smiling mouths, but like Atrifix mentioned, why do homosexuals love each other and like I mentioned, why do we love certain colors and sounds, etc. What is the evolution of psychology?
P.S. In your second paragraph, you mentioned: "Just because an evolutionary explanation 'makes sense' doesn't mean it is that way".
I haven't yet seen an evotionary explanation that made sense (regarding love). Can you please elaborate?

Hi Phil,
You did mention that we should be very careful trying to explain psychology via evolution.
Does this mean that Love can not be explained ( in its many forms ) through evolution?
This is what I was asking elaboration on. I thought that evolution, ultimately, could explain all our behaviors.

[chezlaw]

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Can love be explained in evolutionary terms? Discuss.

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Is love anything different to morality (morality and evolution)?

Maybe love is just an extreme case of caring about someone else.

chez