- Experts from Finland’s Aalto University have listed 27 different types of love.
- Passionate love was seen as the most powerful while love for God was weaker.
Love can be experienced in countless wonderful and wacky ways – from butterflies in the stomach to tingles in the groin.
Now, scientists at Aalto University have mapped 27 different types of sensations and the exact parts of the body they affect.
THE incredible diagrams were produced as the Finland-based team asked hundreds of participants to describe the “feel” of love and what it means to them.
Passionate love was seen as the most powerful of all, impacting the entire upper body, brain and groin.
Meanwhile, love for strangers – and, controversially, for God – was among the weaker forms, with a less explosive effect on the mind and body.
Scientists from Finland’s Aalto University have identified 27 different types of love
“It is remarkable, but not very surprising, that the types of love associated with close relationships are similar and are most strongly experienced,” said philosopher Pärttyli Rinne, who coordinated the study.
“Love between people is divided into sexual and non-sexual. The closest types of love to each other are those that have a sexual or romantic dimension.
“It was also interesting to find a strong correlation between the physical and mental intensity of the emotion and its pleasantness.”
“The more strongly a type of love is felt in the body, the more strongly it is felt in the mind and the more pleasant it is.”
To construct their map, the researchers collected data from hundreds of participants who took part in an online survey.
Each person was asked to color a body silhouette to illustrate how they felt about each type of love.
They were also asked to describe the physical or mental sensations felt when experiencing each type.
The results showed that although most types of love were strongly felt in the mind, their effects differed significantly throughout the body.
For example, a mother’s love for her child had a powerful effect on the chest, while love for wisdom was felt entirely in the mind.
As a result, researchers believe that different types of love fall on a continuum from weaker to stronger forms.
Passionate love was seen as the most powerful of all, impacting the entire upper body, brain and groin when showing head.
A mother’s love for her child had a powerful effect on the chest, while love for wisdom was felt entirely in the mind.
Mr. Rinne continued: “As we move from more strongly experienced types of love to less strongly experienced types of love, the sensations in the chest become weaker.
“It may be, for example, that love of strangers or wisdom are associated with a cognitive process. There may also be pleasant sensations in the head. This is something that should be investigated further.
It is important to note that most of the participants in this study were women with higher education.
The scientists therefore acknowledge that the results might have differed if their study group was more culturally diverse.
“If the same study were done in a highly religious community, love for God might be the most strongly experienced love of all,” Rinne added.
“Similarly, if the subjects were parents in a relationship, as in our current brain study project, love for children might be the strongest type of love.”