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Spain, Barcelona, portrait of happy young man giving his girlfriend a piggyback ride

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When you’re all in love with BAE, do you start to only have eyes for him?

Studies show, that feeling is totally normal.

Dr. Shana Cole and a team of psychologists set out to discover the factors that lead to monogamy, ZME Science reports.

They discovered “single people or those unhappy with their relationship saw other people as being significantly more attractive than those who were in a happy relationship.”

Which basically means, there may be some subconscious trigger that turns off your attraction to others when you’re committed.

“Misperceiving attractive people who represent threats to the relationship as less attractive may help people resist the inclination to pursue them,” says Dr. Shana Cole.

Of course, this finding poses a lot of questions—is this an evolutionary mental thing that allows committed men and women to practice self control? How do you even measure attraction?

“In today’s world, it can be difficult to stick it out with one long-term partner,” says Emily Balcetis, who co-authored the study. “This work suggests that there are processes that may take place outside of conscious awareness to make it easier to stay committed to one’s own partner.”

So the long discussion of whether monogamy is natural or not may be answered by…nature. Especially if humans have evolved to develop ways to help solidify bonds even further.

 

 

 

When You Only Have Eyes For Your Man: Study Shows People In Committed Relationships See Other People Differently  was originally published on hellobeautiful.com