A Comparison of Mothers and Childfree Women on the Common Characteristics of Romantic Love

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-1-2017

Publication Title

SAGE Open

Volume

7

Issue

1

First page number:

1

Last page number:

8

Abstract

Since 2009, de Munck, Korotayev, and Khaltourina’s pioneering survey has been used to investigate the cognitive qualities of love across cultures, including Russia, Lithuania, the United States, and China. To date, this survey has not been used to probe these values at a subcultural level. Mothers and childfree women were surveyed with an expanded version of the original survey designed to target potential variations in ideology based upon parental status. Both mothers and childfree women reportedly adhere to the cultural norms of romantic love previously found in the United States, but childfree women were more likely to value pragmatic characteristics of love (p =.011). Despite this, both groups disagreed with the statement “Career is more important than love,” suggesting norms of romantic love overcome feminist ideals. This is further supported by agreement from both groups on the previously identified “core attributes” that correspond with Fisher’s affective traits of romantic love. © 2017, © The Author(s) 2017.

Language

English

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