There is a chemical process behind love — it doesn’t come from the heart

Romantic comedies such as “The Notebook,” “The Fault in our Stars” and “10 Things I Hate About You,” all have one thing in common: love. 

These movies show love can be found through sacrifice, desire and vulnerability; whether or not a person may be looking for those things.

We watch these movies hoping we too will find that perfect person to fall in love with and live our happily ever after. 

But what if love had a formula? What if it was something that we could control and had less to do with our hearts and more to do with actual scientific chemistry? It’s a complicated answer. 

According to an article written by Harvard microbiologist Katherine Wu and Rutgers anthropologist Helen Fisher, love can be broken down into three different categories: love, attraction and attachment. 

“Though there are overlaps and subtleties to each, each type is characterized by its own set of hormones,” Wu wrote. “Testosterone and estrogen drive lust; dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin create attraction, and oxytocin and vasopressin mediate attachment.”

With each of these categories or steps comes feelings some may describe as “butterflies” and reactions like sweaty palms, a fast-beating heart or loss of concentration. 

And, have you ever thought about why you can never see those red flags when you’re in the beginning stages with your new crush? Science explains that too.  

CNN reports “the brain on love deactivates the amygdala, which controls the perception of fear, anger and sadness. At the same time, the brain dampens the ability of our mid and frontal cortex to use logic, criticize or think clearly. We literally suspend our ability to analyze and judge the object of our affection.”

Missy Kofoed, a professor at Utah State University with a Ph.D. in biochemistry, explains that, chemically speaking, love is a result from the release of a group of molecules. These molecules, called neurotransmitters, act as chemical messengers between neurons in the brain.

Although this may all sound like it’s meant to discount love and try to convince you true love is not a real thing, it’s really only telling one side of the story. 

The fact that the feeling of love stems from the brain, rather than the heart, is very true. However, the topic of love being a complete chemical reaction is actually somewhat of a controversy. 

Parashkev Nachev, in his article on BBC Future, argues “if the neural mechanisms of love were simple, you should be able to induce it with an injection, to extinguish it with a scalpel while leaving everything else intact.”

Nachev also points out that labeling love as just being brain chemistry totally misses the point. 

“Like art,” he said, “love is more than the sum of its parts.”

Kofoed agreed with this statement.

“The reasons behind how, why and when people experience love goes beyond being able to describe love as just a simple chemical reaction,” she said.

We can control how we feel and what emotions we choose to express. Wu said it best when she stated that, ultimately, everyone is more than capable of defining love for themselves.