LOVE - AMERICAN STYLE, RUSSIAN STYLE, AND JAPANESE-STYLE

This study was undertaken to examine young women's and men's orientati ons toward love in three very different cultures: Japan (N = 223), Rus sia (N = 401), and the United States (N = 1,043). The love variables e xamined were: frequency of love experiences, attachment types, love st yles, love as a basis for marriage, romantic attitudes, and predictors of falling in love. Many cultural differences were found in the love variables, but the effect of culture was not always in the expected di rection. We also examined how the pattern of gender differences in lov e variables differed across the three societies. Some of the gender di fferences and similarities found in previous love research and also in the U.S. sample of this study were not replicated in the Japanese and /or Russian samples. We discuss the importance of studying love and ot her aspects of close relationships with data collected from more than one culture.