Kowal, MartaBode, AdamKoszalkowska, KarolinaRoberts, S. CraigGjoneska, BiljanaFrederick, DavidSorokowski, PiotrDural, Seda2025-01-252025-01-2520241045-67671936-4776https://doi.org/10.1007/s12110-024-09482-6https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14365/5837Given the ubiquitous nature of love, numerous theories have been proposed to explain its existence. One such theory refers to love as a commitment device, suggesting that romantic love evolved to foster commitment between partners and enhance their reproductive success. In the present study, we investigated this hypothesis using a large-scale sample of 86,310 individual responses collected across 90 countries. If romantic love is universally perceived as a force that fosters commitment between long-term partners, we expected that individuals likely to suffer greater losses from the termination of their relationships-including people of lower socioeconomic status, those with many children, and women-would place a higher value on romantic love compared to people with higher status, those with fewer children, and men. These predictions were supported. Additionally, we observed that individuals from countries with a higher (vs. lower) Human Development Index placed a greater level of importance on romantic love, suggesting that modernization might influence how romantic love is evaluated. On average, participants worldwide were unwilling to commit to a long-term romantic relationship without love, highlighting romantic love's universal importance.eninfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessRomantic LoveImportance Of LoveEvolutionary TheoryParental Investment TheoryKephartEmotionArticle10.1007/s12110-024-09482-62-s2.0-85213068257