Love and the commitment problem in romantic relations and friendship

On the basis of the proposition that love promotes commitment, the authors predicted that love would motivate approach, have a distinct signal, and co rrelate with commitment-enhancing processes when relationships are threaten ed. The authors studied romantic partners and adolescent opposite-sex frien ds during interactions that elicited love and threatened the bond. As expec ted, the experience of love correlated with approach-related states (desire , sympathy). Providing evidence for a nonverbal display of love, four affil iation cues (head nods, Duchenne smiles, gesticulation, forward leans) corr elated with self-reports and partner estimates of love. Finally, the experi ence and display of love correlated with commitment-enhancing processes (e. g., constructive conflict resolution, perceived trust) when the relationshi p was threatened. Discussion focused on love, positive emotion, and relatio nships.