2008 Woodie Awards
Doctor love is in the house
Questions about love? Dr. Vela has the answers
By: Christine Tognetti
|
"Love is primarily an emotional response, usually to some animate object like people, pets and even plants, but can extend to inanimate objects, e.g. I love my car, my favorite band, etc.," Vela said.
Vela holds a Ph. D. in cognitive psychology, and his areas of expertise include perception, philosophy of the mind and evolutionary psychology.
When asked if he thinks there is someone out there for everyone, Vela answered, "yes and no.
"I do not believe that people are destined to be together," Vela said. "There are many potential special people that one could fall in love with."
Contrary to Internet love and people who meet from all different parts of the world, Vela said love is as much a function of geography as it is a function of physiology. People in the same physical proximity as us are the ones who are more likely to evoke a physiological response.
Marriage is a different issue. Vela said people get married for two main reasons. He credits the first reason to our society and how it deems not being married as socially unacceptable. The second reason has to do with human evolution.
"We probably evolved a bias to pair bond, so we may be predisposed biologically to form a life-long bond with one another," Vela said.
He also believes people are so concerned with being in love because the emotion was selected for us during evolutionary development.
Vela said that during our evolution women would chose to mate with men who showed some kind of capacity for love. Men may have chosen to mate with females who also show the capacity for love. Why? Vela said it is because a female who loves one male is less likely to mate with other males.
"Everything about love and sex has to do ultimately with survival of the species," Vela said. "In fact, everything we do in general owes its roots to physical, emotional, cognitive and social mechanisms that were selected for us throughout our evolution as a species."
Other stories in this series
One day my prince may come
Our society is obsessed with love and this myth that there is someone out there for everyone. This might be true, but obviously...
The good old days of love
"It's funny, I still get butterflies in my stomach when I look into his eyes," Pauline said.
Chico dating spots might make sparks fly
In a town of one-night stands, where do you go on a date?
Let's type about love
Are there millions of people in the world so incredibly lonely that they would get on the Internet, fill out a form, pay money and send their personal information out to millions of people they don't even know?
Be the first to comment on this story