The Function of Love: a Signaling-To Account of the Commitment Device Hypothesis
| dc.contributor.author | Gelbart, B. | |
| dc.contributor.author | Walter, K.V. | |
| dc.contributor.author | Conroy-Beam, D. | |
| dc.contributor.author | Estorque, C. | |
| dc.contributor.author | Buss, D.M. | |
| dc.contributor.author | Asao, K. | |
| dc.contributor.author | Zupancic, M. | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2025-05-25T19:24:20Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2025-05-25T19:24:20Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2025 | |
| dc.description.abstract | Love is commonly hypothesized to function as an evolved commitment device, disincentivizing the pursuit of romantic alternatives and signaling this motivational shift to a partner. Here, we test this possibility against a novel signaling-to-alternatives account, in which love instead operates by dissuading alternatives from pursuing oneself. Overall, we find stronger support for the latter account. In Studies 1 and 2, we find that partner quality relative to alternatives positively predicts feelings of love, and love fails to mitigate the negative effects of desirable alternatives on relationship satisfaction—contradicting the classic commitment device account. In Study 3, using a longitudinal design, we replicate these effects and find that changes in partner quality relative to alternatives predict changes in love over time. In Study 4, we replicate the relationship between love and relative partner quality across 44 countries. In Study 5, we find a nearly one-to-one correspondence between the extent to which partner-directed actions are diagnostic of love and reductions in romantic alternatives' attraction to the actor. These results suggest that love may not act as a commitment device in the classic sense by disincentivizing the pursuit of alternatives but by disincentivizing alternatives from pursuing oneself. © 2025 | en_US |
| dc.description.sponsorship | Hungarian Scientific Research Fund; National Foundation for Science and Technology Development, NAFOSTED; The Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency, ARRS; UK Research and Innovation, UKRI; American Roentgen Ray Society, ARRS, (P5–0062); American Roentgen Ray Society, ARRS; GIST Cancer Research Fund, GCRF, (AH/S004025/1); GIST Cancer Research Fund, GCRF; National Science Center—Poland, (01201370995, 2014/13/B/HS6/02644); OTKA, (K125437); Ministerstwo Edukacji i Nauki, MNiSW, (626/STYP/12/2017); Ministerstwo Edukacji i Nauki, MNiSW; National Natural Science Foundation of China, NSFC, (71971225); National Natural Science Foundation of China, NSFC; National Science Foundation, NSF, (1845586, 501.01-2016.02); National Science Foundation, NSF | en_US |
| dc.identifier.doi | 10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2025.106672 | |
| dc.identifier.issn | 1090-5138 | |
| dc.identifier.scopus | 2-s2.0-105005391782 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2025.106672 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14365/6181 | |
| dc.language.iso | en | en_US |
| dc.publisher | Elsevier Inc. | en_US |
| dc.relation.ispartof | Evolution and Human Behavior | en_US |
| dc.rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/closedAccess | en_US |
| dc.subject | Close Relationships | en_US |
| dc.subject | Commitment Device | en_US |
| dc.subject | Evolutionary Psychology | en_US |
| dc.subject | Quality Of Alternatives | en_US |
| dc.subject | Romantic Love | en_US |
| dc.subject | Signaling Theory | en_US |
| dc.title | The Function of Love: a Signaling-To Account of the Commitment Device Hypothesis | en_US |
| dc.type | Article | en_US |
| dspace.entity.type | Publication | |
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| gdc.author.wosid | Özener, Barış/Aac-5491-2020 | |
| gdc.author.wosid | Stoyanova, Stanislava/I-2058-2013 | |
| gdc.author.wosid | Oberzaucher, Elisabeth/A-5702-2011 | |
| gdc.author.wosid | Hromatko, Ivana/Hge-3202-2022 | |
| gdc.author.wosid | Jaafar, Jas Laile Suzana/Afw-3787-2022 | |
| gdc.author.wosid | Amjad, Naumana/Agk-8153-2022 | |
| gdc.author.wosid | Pisanski, Katarzyna/F-7291-2019 | |
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| gdc.coar.access | metadata only access | |
| gdc.coar.type | text::journal::journal article | |
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| gdc.description.department | İzmir Ekonomi Üniversitesi | en_US |
| gdc.description.departmenttemp | [Gelbart B.] Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, 93106, United States; [Walter K.V.] Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, 93106, United States; [Conroy-Beam D.] Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, 93106, United States; [Estorque C.] Division of Population Behavioral Health University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, 90095, United States; [Buss D.M.] Department of Psychology, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, 78712, United States; [Asao K.] Department of Psychology, Westminster College, Salt Lake City, 84105, United States; [Sorokowska A.] Institute of Psychology, University of Wroclaw, Wroclaw, 50-137, Poland; [Sorokowski P.] Institute of Psychology, University of Wroclaw, Wroclaw, 50-137, Poland; [Aavik T.] Institute of Psychology, University of Tartu, Tartu, 50090, Estonia; [Akello G.] Department of Mental Health, Faculty of Medicine, Gulu University, Gulu, Uganda; [Alhabahba M.M.] English Language Department, Middle East University, Amman, 11181, Jordan; [Alm C.] Department of Psychology, Stockholm University, Stockholm, 10691, Sweden; [Amjad N.] Department of Psychology, University of the Punjab, Lahore, 54590, Pakistan; [Anjum A.] Institute of Applied Psychology, University of the Punjab, Lahore, 54590, Pakistan; [Atama C.S.] Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, 410002, Nigeria; [Duyar D.A.] Department of Anthropology, Istanbul University, Istanbul, 34452, Turkey; [Batres C.] Department of Psychology, Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster, 17603, United States; [Bendixen M.] Department of Psychology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, 7491, Norway; [Bensafia A.] EFORT, Department of Sociology, University of Algiers 2, Algiers, 16000, Algeria; [Bizumic B.] School of Medicine and Psychology, Australian National University, Canberra, 2601, Australia; [Boussena M.] Department of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Setif 2, Setif, 19000, Algeria; [Butovskaya M.] Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, 119991, Russian Federation, Russian State University for the Humanities, Moscow, 119991, Russian Federation; [Can S.] Department of Psychology, Izmir University of Economics, Izmir, 35300, Turkey; [Carrier A.] Psychology Faculty (CECOS), Université Catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, 1348, Belgium; [Cetinkaya H.] Department of Psychology, Yasar University, Izmir, 35100, Turkey; [Croy I.] Department of Psychotherapy and Psychosomatic Medicine, TU Dresden, Dresden, 1069, Germany; [Cueto R.M.] Grupo de Psicología Política y Social (GPPS), Departamento de Psicología, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Lima, 15088, Peru; [Czub M.] Institute of Psychology, University of Wroclaw, Wroclaw, 50-137, Poland; [Dronova D.] Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, 119991, Russian Federation; [Dural S.] Department of Psychology, Izmir University of Economics, Izmir, 35300, Turkey; [Duyar I.] Department of Anthropology, Istanbul University, Istanbul, 34452, Turkey; [Ertugrul B.] Department of Anthropology, Istanbul University, Istanbul, 34452, Turkey; [Espinosa A.] Grupo de Psicología Política y Social (GPPS), Departamento de Psicología, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Lima, 15088, Peru; [Estevan I.] Facultad de Psicología, Universidad de la República, Motevideo, 11200, Uruguay; [Esteves C.S.] Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Católica Lisbon School of Business & Economics, Católica Lisbon Research Unit in Business and Economics, Lisboa, 1649-026, Portugal; [Fang L.] Department of Psychology, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong 0, China; [Frackowiak T.] Institute of Psychology, University of Wroclaw, Wroclaw, 50-137, Poland; [Garduño J.C.] Escuela Nacional de Estudios Superiores, Unidad Morelia UNAM, Morelia, 58190, Mexico; [González K.U.] Psychology Department, Universidad Latina de Costa Rica, San José, 11501, Costa Rica; [Guemaz F.] Department of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Setif 2, Setif, 19000, Algeria; [Gyuris P.] Institute of Psychology, University of Pécs, Pécs, 7624, Hungary; [Herak I.] Louvain Research Institute in Management and Organisations (LOURiM), Université Catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, 1348, Belgium; [Hromatko I.] Department of Psychology, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, 10000, Croatia; [Hui C.-M.] Department of Psychology, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong 0, China; [Jaafar J.L.] Dept of Educational Psychology and Counseling, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, 50603, Malaysia; [Jiang F.] School of Business, University of Leicester, Brookfield, LE2 1RQ, United Kingdom; [Kafetsios K.] Department of Psychology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, 54124, Greece, Katedra Psychologie, Palacky University, Olomouc, 77900, Czech Republic; [Kavcic T.] Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, 1000, Slovenia; [Kennair L.E.O.] Department of Psychology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, 7491, Norway; [Kervyn N.] Louvain Research Institute in Management and Organisations (LOURiM), Université Catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, 1348, Belgium; [Ha T.T.K.] Department of Psychology, University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Hanoi, 100000, Viet Nam; [Khilji I.A.] Department of Psychology, IMCB, F-10/4, Islamabad, 44000, Pakistan, Department of Professional Psychology, Bahria University Islamabad, Islamabad, 44000, Pakistan; [Lan H.M.] Department of Psychology, University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Hanoi, 100000, Viet Nam; [Láng A.] Institute of Psychology, University of Pécs, Pécs, 7624, Hungary; [Lennard G.R.] School of Medicine and Psychology, Australian National University, Canberra, 2601, Australia; [León E.] Grupo de Psicología Política y Social (GPPS), Departamento de Psicología, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Lima, 15088, Peru; [Lindholm T.] Department of Psychology, Stockholm University, Stockholm, 10691, Sweden; [Linh T.T.] Department of Psychology, University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Hanoi, 100000, Viet Nam; [Lopez G.] Department of Psychology, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, 20123, Italy; [Van Luot N.] Department of Psychology, University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Hanoi, 100000, Viet Nam; [Mailhos A.] Facultad de Psicología, Universidad de la República, Motevideo, 11200, Uruguay; [Manesi Z.] Department of Experimental & Applied Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, 1081, Netherlands; [McKerchar S.L.] School of Medicine and Psychology, Australian National University, Canberra, 2601, Australia; [Meskó N.] Institute of Psychology, University of Pécs, Pécs, 7624, Hungary; [Misra G.] Department of Psychology, University of Delhi, Delhi, 110021, India; [Monaghan C.] School of Medicine and Psychology, Australian National University, Canberra, 2601, Australia; [Mora E.C.] Department of Animal and Human Biology, Faculty of Biology, University of Havana, Havana, Cuba; [Moya-Garófano A.] Department of Social Psychology, University of Granada, Granada, 18010, Spain; [Musil B.] Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts, University of Maribor, Maribor, 2000, Slovenia; [Natividade J.C.] Department of Psychology, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, 22451-000, Brazil; [Niemczyk A.] Institute of Psychology, University of Wroclaw, Wroclaw, 50-137, Poland; [Nizharadze G.] Department of Social Sciences, Free University of Tbilisi, Tbilisi 2, Georgia; [Oberzaucher E.] Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Vienna, Vienna, 1030, Austria; [Oleszkiewicz A.] Institute of Psychology, University of Wroclaw, Wroclaw, 50-137, Poland, Smell & Taste Clinic, Department of Otorhinolaryngology, TU Dresden, Dresden, “01307”, Germany; [Omar-Fauzee M.S.] Faculty of Education and Liberal Arts, INTI International University, Nilai, Malaysia; [Onyishi I.E.] Department of Psychology, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, 410002, Nigeria; [Özener B.] Department of Anthropology, Istanbul University, Istanbul, 34452, Turkey; [Pagani A.F.] Department of Humanities, University of Urbino Carlo Bo, Urbino, 61029, Italy; [Pakalniskiene V.] Institute of Psychology, Vilnius University, Vilnius, 1513, Lithuania; [Parise M.] Department of Psychology, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, 20123, Italy; [Pazhoohi F.] School of Psychology, University of Plymouth, Plymouth, PL48AA, United Kingdom; [Pisanski A.] Department of Animal and Human Biology, Faculty of Biology, University of Havana, Havana, Cuba; [Pisanski K.] Institute of Psychology, University of Wroclaw, Wroclaw, 50-137, Poland, Dynamics of Language Lab (DDL), University of Lyon 2, Lyon, 69363, France; [Plohl N.] Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts, University of Maribor, Maribor, 2000, Slovenia; [Ponciano E.] Institute of Psychology, University of the State of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, 20.550-900, Brazil; [Popa C.] UNATC-CINETIc, Department of Psychology, Romanian Academy, Bucharest, 30167, Romania; [Prokop P.] Department of Environmental Ecology and Landscape Management, Comenius University, Bratislava, 842 15, Slovakia, Institute of Zoology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava, 845 06, Slovakia; [Rizwan M.] Department of Clinical Psychology, National University of Medical Sciences, Rawalpindi, Pakistan; [Salkicevic S.] Department of Psychology, Faculty for Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, 10000, Croatia; [Sargautyte R.] Institute of Psychology, Vilnius University, Vilnius, 1513, Lithuania; [Sarmány-Schuller I.] Center for Social and Psychological Sciences, Institute of Experimental Psychology SAS, Bratislava, 841 04, Slovakia; [Sharad S.] Department of Applied Psychology, Vivekananda College, University of Delhi, Delhi, 110095, India; [Siddiqui R.S.] Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, DHA Suffa University, Karachi, 75500, Pakistan; [Simonetti F.] School of Psychology, P. Universidad Catolica de Chile, Santiago, 8331150, Chile; [Stoyanova S.Y.] Department of Psychology, South-West University “Neofit Rilski”, Blagoevgrad, 2700, Bulgaria; [Tadinac M.] Department of Psychology, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, 10000, Croatia; [Varella M.A.C.] Department of Experimental Psychology, Institute of Psychology, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, 05508-030, Brazil; [Vauclair C.-M.] Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL), CIS-IUL, Lisboa, 1649-026, Portugal; [Vega L.D.] Psychology Department, Universidad Latina de Costa Rica, San José, 11501, Costa Rica; [Widarini D.A.] Faculty of Communication, Universitas Prof. Dr. Moestopo (Beragama), Jakarta, 10270, Indonesia; [Yoo G.] Dept. of Child & Family Studies, Kyung Hee University, Seoul, 024-47, South Korea; [Zatková M.] Faculty of Social Sciences and Health Care, Department of Psychological Sciences, Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra, Nitra, 94974, Slovakia; [Zupancic M.] Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, 1000, Slovenia | en_US |
| gdc.description.issue | 2 | en_US |
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| gdc.oaire.keywords | Romantic love, Commitment device, Quality of alternatives, Evolutionary psychology, Close relationships, Signaling theory | |
| gdc.oaire.keywords | function of love | |
| gdc.oaire.keywords | Quality of alternatives | |
| gdc.oaire.keywords | cross-cultural | |
| gdc.oaire.keywords | Signaling theory | |
| gdc.oaire.keywords | commitment device hypothesis | |
| gdc.oaire.keywords | love, partner, commitment, multi-cultural, | |
| gdc.oaire.keywords | Evolutionary psychology | |
| gdc.oaire.keywords | Romantic love | |
| gdc.oaire.keywords | Close relationships | |
| gdc.oaire.keywords | Commitment device | |
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