BY MELISSA DE WITTE

For centuries, people have tried to understand the behaviors and beliefs associated with
falling in love. What explains the wide range of emotions people experience? How have
notions of romance evolved over time? As digital media becomes a permanent fixture in
people’s lives, how have these technologies changed how people meet?

Examining some of these questions are Stanford scholars.

From the historians who traced today’s ideas of romance to ancient Greek philosophy and
Arab lyric poetry, to the social scientists who have examined the consequences of finding
love through an algorithm, to the scientists who study the love hormone oxytocin, here is
what their research reveals about matters of the heart.

The evolution of romance

How romantic love is understood today has several historical origins, says Robert Pogue
Harrison, the Rosina Pierotti Professor in Italian Literature and a scholar of romance
studies.

For example, the idea of finding one’s other half dates back to ancient Greek mythology,
Harrison said. According to Aristophanes in Plato’s Symposium, humans were once
complete, “sphere-like creatures” until the Greek gods cut them in half. Ever since,
individuals have sought after their other half.

Here are some of those origin stories, as well as other historical perspectives on love and
romance, including what courtship looked like in medieval Germany and in Victorian
England, where humor and innuendo broke through the politics of the times.

Love in the digital age

Where do people find love today? According to recent research by sociologist Michael
Rosenfeld, meeting online is now the most popular way to meet a partner. 

“The rise of the smartphone took internet dating off the desktop and put it in everyone’s
pocket, all the time,” said Rosenfeld. He found that 39 percent of heterosexual couples met
their significant other online, compared to 22 percent in 2009. 
As people increasingly find connections online, their digital interactions can provide insight
into people’s preferences in a partner. 

For example, Neil Malhotra, the Edith M. Cornell Professor of Political Economy, analyzed
thousands of interactions from an online dating website and found that people seek partners
from their own political party and with similar political interests and ideologies. Here is
some of that research.