Washington:
Thinking about love - but not about sex - makes one think more "globally", and helps us come up with new ideas, a new study says.
The researchers at the University of Amsterdam found that love really does alter our thoughts, and that this profound emotion affects us in a way that is different than simply thinking about sex.
Love has inspired countless works of art, from immortal plays such as Romeo and Juliet, to architectural masterpieces such as the Taj Mahal, to classic pop songs, like Queen's "Love of My Life", the study said.
The clever experiments by psychologists -Jens Forster, Kai Epstude, and Amina Ozelsel-- demonstrated that love makes us think differently and it triggers global processing, which in turn promotes creative thinking and interferes with analytic thinking, said a recent report in Scientific American.
This raises the obvious question: why is love such a stimulating emotion? Why does the act of falling in love or at least thinking about love lead to such a spur of creative productivity? According to the study, one possibility is that when we're in love we actually think differently but thinking about sex, has the opposite effect: it triggers local processing, which in turn promotes analytic thinking and interferes with creativity.
On why love makes us think more globally, the researchers suggested that romantic love induces a long-term perspective, whereas sexual desire induces a short-term perspective. This is because love typically entails wishes and goals of prolonged attachment with a person, whereas sexual desire is typically focused on engaging in sexual activities in the "here and now". Consistent with this idea, when the researchers asked people to imagine a romantic date or a casual sex encounter, they found that those who imagined dates imagined them as occurring farther into the future than those who imagined casual sex.
According to Construal Level Theory (CLT), thinking about events that are farther into the future or past - or any kind psychological distancing (such as considering things or people that are physically farther away, or considering remote, unlikely alternatives to reality) triggers a more global processing style. In other words, psychological distancing makes us see the forest rather than the individual trees.
In sum, the authors suggest that, because love activates a long-term perspective that elicits global processing, it should also promote creativity and impede analytic thinking. In contrast, inasmuch as sex activates a short-term perspective that elicits local processing, it should also promote analytic thinking and impede creative thinking.
The researchers at the University of Amsterdam found that love really does alter our thoughts, and that this profound emotion affects us in a way that is different than simply thinking about sex.
Love has inspired countless works of art, from immortal plays such as Romeo and Juliet, to architectural masterpieces such as the Taj Mahal, to classic pop songs, like Queen's "Love of My Life", the study said.
The clever experiments by psychologists -Jens Forster, Kai Epstude, and Amina Ozelsel-- demonstrated that love makes us think differently and it triggers global processing, which in turn promotes creative thinking and interferes with analytic thinking, said a recent report in Scientific American.
This raises the obvious question: why is love such a stimulating emotion? Why does the act of falling in love or at least thinking about love lead to such a spur of creative productivity? According to the study, one possibility is that when we're in love we actually think differently but thinking about sex, has the opposite effect: it triggers local processing, which in turn promotes analytic thinking and interferes with creativity.
On why love makes us think more globally, the researchers suggested that romantic love induces a long-term perspective, whereas sexual desire induces a short-term perspective. This is because love typically entails wishes and goals of prolonged attachment with a person, whereas sexual desire is typically focused on engaging in sexual activities in the "here and now". Consistent with this idea, when the researchers asked people to imagine a romantic date or a casual sex encounter, they found that those who imagined dates imagined them as occurring farther into the future than those who imagined casual sex.
According to Construal Level Theory (CLT), thinking about events that are farther into the future or past - or any kind psychological distancing (such as considering things or people that are physically farther away, or considering remote, unlikely alternatives to reality) triggers a more global processing style. In other words, psychological distancing makes us see the forest rather than the individual trees.
In sum, the authors suggest that, because love activates a long-term perspective that elicits global processing, it should also promote creativity and impede analytic thinking. In contrast, inasmuch as sex activates a short-term perspective that elicits local processing, it should also promote analytic thinking and impede creative thinking.
