Love and addiction : the importance of commitment

Abstract

The bilaterally monopolistic nature of relationships between partners, combined with the addictive nature of love, which represents the emotion people feel during the course of a relationship, results in love growth when relationships are based on commitment. However, in relationships with less than perfect commitment, love will wither, and potentially die. In this paper, the path of love through a relationship is examined under the assumption that love is addictive and that partners may or may not be able to commit to a relationship. The differences in the results suggest that cohabiting partners may, by their very lack of commitment at the outset, be unsuited to successful marriages.