Love is one of the most complex emotions we experience. It is not easy to define or understand, and different people have many different ideas about what it means to love. Often, the word love is used to describe feelings of affection, protectiveness, and warmth for someone or something that we care deeply about. This could include a person, an animal, a cause or belief. Love is also commonly used to describe a romantic relationship between two people. However, there are also many other types of loving relationships, such as familial or platonic.

The concept of love has been a favored topic of philosophers, poets, writers, and scientists for centuries. While most agree that love involves strong feelings of attachment, there is much disagreement about what it means to love someone. Some researchers believe that love is a primary emotion, while others say it is more of a psychological motivation than an emotional feeling. Still others distinguish between primary and secondary emotions, and claim that love is a combination of several different emotions.

For the purposes of this article, we will use the word love to refer to the feeling of attachment that occurs when we care about someone and want to spend time with them. It can be a positive feeling, as well as a negative feeling such as infatuation or jealousy. Love may be mutual, as in a marriage or partnership, or it may be unreciprocated, as in an unrequited crush. It can also be a mixture of both positive and negative feelings, such as lust and indifference.

In the last 75 years, psychologists have started to study love as a specific phenomenon. Early attempts to study love sparked controversy and were ridiculed by politicians, such as Senator William Proxmire, who derided researchers on the subject as wasteful of taxpayer dollars. Despite these setbacks, studies on love have continued to grow and provide new insights into the nature of love.

Biological models of love suggest that it is a mammalian drive, similar to hunger or thirst. This view emphasizes oxytocin, a hormone that causes the feeling of bonding with another person. It is thought that this is how humans are wired to develop a connection with each other and to help children stay bonded with their parents for as long as possible in order to survive and reach sexual maturity.

Research on love has shown that there are two primary types of love: passionate and companionate. Those in the throes of passionate love experience intense desire and emotional arousal, such as shortness of breath or rapid heart rate. This is usually accompanied by a lack of inhibitions about sex and sexual activity. Companionate love, on the other hand, is characterized by affection and a sense of closeness that does not involve the physiological arousal of passion.

A third type of love is storge love, which is defined by open expressions of affection and loyalty. People in storge love are generally mature, and they value shared interests and stability over sex and physical attraction. They are less likely to game their partners, and they will often wait for a partner before starting a new relationship. They are also more likely to respect the views of their loved ones and are willing to compromise.