You gaze at the wide blue lake and you cannot help but remember the one person you think who might bring all the happiness to you. You lose yourself in that world where you search for love and eventually you lose yourself in the depth of your own affection. This is what love does. But if I ask you to be more accurate and specific in defining and explaining what love does to you, will you have an answer? There have been scientists, artists, and philosophers who have attempted to find a reply. But it has always remained a complex question and a complex answer. Molly Callahan’s article on the interview of Laura Dudley, Assistant Clinical Professor and Director of Applied Behaviour Analysis Program at the Northeastern University, suggests that behavioural science might connect a few dots to the mysterious nature of love.
The first question posed by Tina Turner who interviewed Dudley was, “What does it mean to be in love?” To this, she described all the physiological changes which are evidently visible in the person including sweaty palms, flushed cheeks, dilated pupils, etc. It is also the behavioural aspects which take a drastic turn. The person who experiences attraction towards someone attempts to become restless and sleepless. These actions describe the act of ‘being in love’ as it becomes really difficult also for the person experiencing the feeling to express what exactly he/she feels. The behaviour observed can be compared to the phenomenon of Classical Conditioning by Pavlov. Here, the stimulus is anything related to the loved one that creates a pool of positive hormones and a behavioural change elicited by the person. But this change, according to me is not liable to the moral ethics of right and wrong. They aren’t subject to questions like, ‘Is it right or wrong to behave like this’, instead they stand on a fact that love has its own actions and consequences.
Love has its own beauty to grow and accomplish with the generosity of having no expectations of getting something in return. It only learns to give its warmth to the loved one and does not bother if there are no returns paid. It is happy and unpleasant too, but it surely leaves you mesmerised and in overwhelming wonder.
Akshara Palshetkar
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