“By that time,” she says, “couples have either parted or decided they are easy enough with each other to stay together. Love becomes a habit . . .”
Professor Hazan’s conclusions are based on 5000 interviews across 37 cultures and medical tests on couples.
Source: The Australian, 27:7:99, page 1, based on an article by John Harlow (London, The Sunday Times).
Professor Cindy Hazan of Cornell University, New York, believes that falling “in love” involves the release of three chemicals in the brain: dopamine, phenylethylamine, and oxytocin. Even if the concentration of these chemicals were to remain at their peak for the rest of one’s life, the body would develop a tolerance to it, and so the effect would diminish. In reality, research indicates that levels decline over 18 to 30 months and rarely return in a relationship.