Barriers tend to intensify romance. It's called the 'Romeo and Juliet effect.' I call it 'frustration attraction.' — Helen Fisher Copy Share Image
Until recently, we regarded love as supernatural. We were willing to study the brain chemistry of fear and depression and anger but… — Helen Fisher Copy Share Image
The main characteristics of romantic love are craving: an intense craving to be with a particular person, not just sexually, but emotionally. — Helen Fisher Copy Share Image
Anthropologists have found evidence of romantic love in 170 societies. They've never found a society that did not have it. — Helen Fisher Copy Share Image
Any kind of novelty or excitement drives up dopamine in the brain, and dopamine is associated with romantic love. — Helen Fisher Copy Share Image
Romantic love is an addiction: a perfectly wonderful addiction when it’s going well, and a perfectly horrible addiction when it’s going poorly. — Helen Fisher Copy Share Image
Romantic love allows you to focus mating energy. Attachment sustains that relationship as long as necessary to raise your baby. — Helen Fisher Copy Share Image
Romantic love is not an emotion. ... It's a drive. It comes from the motor of the mind, the wanting part of… — Helen Fisher Copy Share Image
You fall in love with somebody who fits within what I call your 'love map,' an unconscious list of traits that you… — Helen Fisher Copy Share Image
There were real reasons that you were attracted to somebody originally. The brain doesn't pick willy-nilly. Unless you part ways hating each… — Helen Fisher Copy Share Image
Men are so visual, they see a woman who appeals to them physically, and it will trigger the romantic love system faster. — Helen Fisher Copy Share Image
Psychologists maintain that the dizzy feeling of intense romantic love lasts only about 18 months to-at best-three years — Helen Fisher Copy Share Image
We're not very dangerous animals; we don't have a horn like a rhino or quills like a porcupine. — Helen Fisher Copy Share
Of all the foods we share, there is nothing more primordial than meat. It's no surprise that meat-eaters still want a partner who will… — Helen Fisher Copy Share
When chimps threaten, they open their mouth and show their teeth. It's a little like waving a knife in front of you. It's very… — Helen Fisher Copy Share
For so many generations, a woman's only career path was to marry well and to marry up. Those days have changed. — Helen Fisher Copy Share
Almost always, when I'm on TV, the producers who call me, who negotiate what we're going to say, is a woman. — Helen Fisher Copy Share
Jealousy can even be good for love. One partner may feel secretly flattered when the other is mildly jealous. And catching someone flirting with… — Helen Fisher Copy Share
In that early-love stage, you're in that state of exhilaration. You talk till dawn. You become obsessed with 'What does he think?' 'Does he… — Helen Fisher Copy Share
“...if patterns of human love subtly change, all sorts of social and political atrocities can escalate.” — Helen Fisher Copy Share
Women's worst invention was the plow. With the beginning of plow agriculture, men's roles became extremely powerful. Women lost their ancient jobs as collectors. — Helen Fisher Copy Share
As women in industrial societies join the paid workforce, they gain the economic means to depart unhappy marriages more easily. — Helen Fisher Copy Share
Why do we feel jealousy? Therapists often regard the demon as a scar of childhood trauma or a symptom of a psychological problem. And… — Helen Fisher Copy Share
Despite the myth that men are less committed, they are predisposed to desire marriage. — Helen Fisher Copy Share
