Love Styles and Cardiovascular Responder Types

Kenta Matsumura,Peter Rolfe,Takehiro Yamakoshi

doi:10.5539/ijps.v3n2p21

Kenta Matsumura, Peter Rolfe + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.5539/ijps.v3n2p21

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Abstract

We examined the relationship between cardiovascular responder types and love styles. Cardiovascular respondertypes were measured as reactivity to a social speech task. Measures included heart rate (HR), systolic anddiastolic blood pressure (SBP and DBP, respectively), pre-ejection period (PEP), and baroreceptor sensitivity(BRS). Love styles were measured using the 2nd version of Lee’s Type Scale; a questionnaire developed basedon Lee’s color theory. Analyses revealed that Eros (physically attracted love) score was related to HR, SBP, andBRS reactivity, and that Mania (obsessive and jealous love) score was related to HR and BRS reactivity. Theseresults suggest that passionate love style, including Eros and Mania, is associated with cardiovascular respondertypes.

Highlights

There is accumulated social psychological and psychophysiological evidence suggesting that a pounding heart is associated with romantic attraction
Analyses revealed that Eros score was related to heart rate (HR), SBP, and baroreceptor sensitivity (BRS) reactivity, and that Mania score was related to HR and BRS reactivity
As for the others, the Eros love score was associated with SBP (r = .46, p < .05), BRS (r = −.45, p < .05), and pre-ejection period (PEP) (r = −.40, p < .10) reactivity (ΔSBP, ΔBRS, and ΔPEP; reflecting SBP, BRS, and PEP responder type, respectively) and the Mania love score was negatively associated with BRS (r = −.46, p < .05) reactivity (ΔBRS; reflecting BRS responder type)

Summary

Introduction

There is accumulated social psychological and psychophysiological evidence suggesting that a pounding heart is associated with romantic attraction. Some individuals are frequently hit by love’s arrow, yet others www.ccsenet.org/ijps seldom are (Hendrick & Hendrick, 1986; Lee, 1977) The former and the latter are termed high / low heart rate responders and Eros / non-Eros love style according to Lee’s color theory (1977), respectively. To our knowledge, there is no study that examines the relationship between heart rate responder type and Eros love style This absence is somewhat curious considering that state dependent variables, including the extent to which one’s heart pounds in the presence of the beloved and to which one is romantically attracted under a certain level of increased heart rate, are generally under the influence of their corresponding individual traits

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