What do different kinds of love feel like? In the body… as a physical sensation?
Wednesday, October 18, 2023.
A very unusual study was conducted in which hundreds of humans were asked to color in a map of the body with where they felt different types of love.
The strongest forms of love, such as passionate, true love and love for life, are felt throughout the head and the rest of the body.
This research hypothesizes that there is a ‘body map’ of human emotions: that is to say, we feel different kinds of love in different areas of the body.
How the study was conducted:
Hundreds of humans in the study were asked to color in a map of the human body in order to describe where in their bodies they felt each distinct type of love.
They were also asked to describe how pleasurable the feeling was, and how that feeling expressed itself in touch, and proxemics of that sort of love.
The research revealed that the head was always involved in a feeling of love, but sometimes it migrated to the chest, and in some sorts of love, sometimes migrated yet further, throughout the body
Dr. Pärttyli Rinne, philosopher, researcher and script writer, and the co-author of the study, said:
“It was noteworthy, though not very surprising, that the types of love associated with close relationships are similar and are the most strongly experienced.”
Body maps of emotions
Here are the body maps of emotions the study produced.
They are in order of intensity, starting with the most intense forms of love.
Yellow areas indicate the most intense feelings, followed by orange and red. Black indicates no feeling in this area.
Romance and sex produced the closest connection, Dr Rinne explained:
“Love between persons is divided into sexual and non-sexual.
The types of love that are particularly close to each other are those that have a sexual or romantic dimension.
It was also interesting to find a strong correlation between the physical and mental intensity of the emotion and its pleasantness.
The more strongly a type of love is felt in the body, the more strongly it’s felt in the mind and the more pleasant it is.”
If you love someone, give them some head…
The finding that love was always experienced in the head intrigued Dr. Rinne:
“When we move from more strongly experienced types of love to less strongly experienced types, the sensations in the chest area become weaker.
It may be that, for example, love for strangers or wisdom is associated with a cognitive process.
It may also be that there are pleasant sensations in the head area.
This is something that should be investigated further.”
Cultural differences likely would affect the results, said Dr. Rinne:
“If the same study were done in a highly religious community, love for God might be the most strongly experienced love of all.
Similarly, if the subjects were parents in a relationship, as in our ongoing brain study project, love for children could be the strongest type of love.”
Benevolence towards others is a key determinant of love. Benevolence is about giving attention, caring and a certain warmth. Pärttyli Rinne
This was an interesting study. A philosopher/researcher is an intriguing skill set. It appears that Dr. Rinne has made a serious ongoing effort for the past 15 years to explore the nature of human love. I celebrate his efforts!
Be well, stay kind, and Godspeed.
RESEARCH:
Pärttyli Rinne, Mikke Tavast, Enrico Glerean & Mikko Sams (2023) Body maps of loves, Philosophical Psychology, DOI: 10.1080/09515089.2023.2252464
