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Sabene Sidani
Dr. Tasha Buttler
Research Writing
11/12/2014
Is Love Merely A Romanticized Idea?
The Hormonal Chemistry Behind Love and Why We Act The Way We Do When In Love.
Some people may argue that love is merely a romantic idea; however what many are not
aware of is that love is a biological and psychological factor that changes the body internally as
well as externally. There are a lot of different things that occur within the body when someone
experiences love; hormones are released and trigger various types of emotions and feelings. Four
of the most important hormones released when someone experiences love are Oxytocin,
Vasopressin, Serotonin, and Dopamine. This essay will analyze how the hormones, Oxytocin,
Vasopressin, Serotonin, and Dopamine, which are associated with love, contribute to the way
people act when in love.
The most commonly known hormone that comes to mind when asked about love is
oxytocin. Oxytocin triggers feelings of lasting love and commitment. It is the kinder, gentler
hormone of love, trust, and attachment. Unlike testosterone and dopamine, oxytocin contributes
to the feelings of safety and comfort. Judith Horstman is an award-winning journalist who
specializes in health and medicine has been a Washington correspondent, a journalism professor,
a Fulbright scholar, and has written and edited in just about any medium including newspapers,
newsletters, special health publications, radio, video, the Internet, annual reports and books. In
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her book The Chemistry of Love, she explains a lot about how hormones affect the way we act
when in love.
Lasting love and devotion can be credited to the kinder, gentler, neurohormone
oxytocin, also known as the “cuddle hormone,” which is produced in the brains of
newborns, nursing mothers, and at orgasm. It’s the hormone of love, trust, and
attachment and is involved in every kind of human and mammal bonding. Unlike
the hot spurs of testosterone and dopamine, oxytocin contributes to feelings of
comfort and security. (23).
Our body needs oxytocin in order to be able to function better in society. However, too much of
something is never good. Having an increasing amount of oxytocin in one’s body is a cause of
many disorders, one of them being the Williams syndrome. According to a research review in the
Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, kids and adults with the Williams syndrome love
people and are pathologically trusting; they are often labeled as having no social fear. Similar to
the Williams syndrome, a person in love goes through a familiar type of process. For example,
when a mother gives birth oxytocin is released at immense levels; this increase in the levels of
oxytocin attaches the mother to her newborn child. This process also happens when people fall in
love, oxytocin levels increase enabling the couple to form a bond where trust is eminent, and
social anxiety between one another is inexistent.
Similar to Judith Horstman, Semir Zeki identifies the important and similar roles of
oxytocin and vasopressin. Semir Zeki is a British neurobiologist who has specialized in studying
the primate visual brain and more recently the neural correlates of affective states, such as the
experience of love, desire and beauty that are generated by sensory inputs within the field of
neuroesthetics. In his article “The Neurobiology of Love” Zeki explains the neural correlation of
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hormones regarding both romantic and maternal love. Thanks to the advancement of technology
neurobiologists are able to learn more about the neural sources of romantic and maternal love.
Romantic and maternal attachment both stimulate areas pertaining to each type of attachment,
along with the reward system located in the brain that overlap with parts where oxytocin and
vasopressin receptors are present in bountiful amounts. Both kinds of attachment disable a
common area linked with negative emotions, judgment, and the analyzing of people’s emotions
and intentions:
The newly developed ability to study the neural correlates of subjective mental
states with brain imaging techniques has allowed neurobiologists to learn
something about the neural bases of both romantic and maternal love. Both types
of attachment activate regions specific to each, as well as overlapping regions in
the brain’s reward system that coincide with areas rich in oxytocin and
vasopressin receptors. Both deactivate a common set of regions associated with
negative emotions, social judgment and ‘mentalizing’ that is, the assessment of
other people’s intentions and emotions. (2575).
An example of the effect of the release of vasopressin is seen in mother and child interaction. A
mother is called into school regarding her child’s behavior, regardless of what the child has done
a mother will almost always take her child’s side and defend him. This is because love causes a
person to become almost blind to the negative behavior their loved one commits.
Another important function that vasopressin has is the ability to increase territoriality and
protectiveness in males. This process is crucial in maintaining the strength in bonds between
couples since females will sometimes mate with strangers even if they are already romantically
involved with someone else. C. Sue Carter is a biologist and behavioral neurobiologist. She is an
