WHAT’S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT? DEFINING THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCT OF LOVE

The construct of love has been assessed through various self-report questionnaires, yet there is no clear evidence that these measures evaluate the same underlying concept.This study aims to develop a culturally sensitive definition of love through a two-part investigation.The first study examined the validity of eight widely used self-report measures related to love.A total of 565 adults completed the love measures, demographic questions, a 0-100 rating of love, and an open-ended question defining love.Factor analysis revealed inconsistencies, including more factors than originally reported, high collinearity among items, and some items failing to meet inclusion criteria (i.e., loading weight).The second study explored societal attitudes toward love in Western cultures using an Implicit Association Test (IAT).We hypothesized that cognitive load, measured by response latency, would vary based on the categorization of love-related words.A sample of 1,102 individuals from the United States and Europe evaluated 158 words as related to love or not.Results showed that participants identified love-related words more quickly than non-love words.These findings align with Prospect Theory and the Theory of Constructed Emotions, suggesting that love is a cognitively salient and culturally shaped construct.A definition of the socio-linguistic construct of love is offered founded on the statistical findings of these studies.