• Question: What is love?

    Asked by claudiaa to Hannah, Gopal, Becky, Angela, Vince on 19 Jun 2013. This question was also asked by amywamy.
    • Photo: Gopal Ramchurn

      Gopal Ramchurn answered on 19 Jun 2013:

      Depending on who you ask this question, you’ll get a different answer!
      For me, love is a feeling you can’t possibly explain completely in words…. You could say it’s to do with a feeling of attraction (physical and mental), compassion (a sense of empathy), or respect (for one’s parents or elders or teachers!).

      To ask what love is, is to ask what milk tastes like – you really have to taste it to know what it is….. Now, you can get closer to tasting love if you read love stories like those of Romeo and Juliette (love between a man and a woman), watch a film such as ‘Dead poet’s society’ to understand the love of pupils for their teacher (respect), or read a book like the New testament or the Ramayana where you’ll read about Divine love.

    • Photo: Rebecca Cook

      Rebecca Cook answered on 20 Jun 2013:

      Love is very difficult to define, scientific studies into love have revealed that there are some changes in the brain when in love. A study in 2000 revealed two areas of the brain that became more active when in love. The combination of sites were different to any study of other emotions, suggesting being in love is a unique feeling.

      There are also hormonal changes when in love, there are a set of hormones associated with the beginning phase of falling in love and these hormones are associated with attraction. Long term relationships are associated with different hormones that are related to forming in an attachment.

      I think love feels different to different people even if there are physiological changes that are similar.

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