Topic summary
Romantic love
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Romance.
Being in love
Romantic love is not necessarily "dyadic", "social" or "interpersonal", despite being related to pair bonding. Romantic love can be experienced outside the context of a relationship, as in the case of unrequited love where the feelings are not reciprocated. People in love experience motivational salience for a loved one (focused attention, associated with "wanting" a rewarding experience), which is mediated by dopamine activity in the brain's reward system. Because of this and other similarities, it has been argued that romantic love is an addiction (which can be positive when reciprocated), but academics do not agree on when this is the case, or on a definition of "love addiction".