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A formula for love: partner merit and appreciation beget actor significance

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 March 2025

Arie W. Kruglanski Open the ORCID record for Arie W. Kruglanski [Opens in a new window] ,
Molly Ellenberg Open the ORCID record for Molly Ellenberg [Opens in a new window] ,
Huixian Yu ,
Edward P. Lemay Jr ,
Sophia Moskalenko ,
Ewa Szumowska ,
Erica Molinario ,
Antonio Pierro  and
Federico Contu
Arie W. Kruglanski*
Affiliation:
University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA
Molly Ellenberg
Affiliation:
University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA
Huixian Yu
Affiliation:
University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA
Edward P. Lemay Jr
Affiliation:
University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA
Sophia Moskalenko
Affiliation:
Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, USA
Ewa Szumowska
Affiliation:
Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland
Erica Molinario
Affiliation:
Florida Gulf Coast University, Florida, USA
Antonio Pierro
Affiliation:
Universita di Roma, “La Sapienza”, Rome, Italy
Federico Contu
Affiliation:
Universita di Roma, “La Sapienza”, Rome, Italy Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan, Italy
*
Corresponding author: Arie W. Kruglanski; Email: kruglanski@gmail.com
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Short abstract

We offer a model of romantic love as a means to the end of feeling significant and worthy. According to this model, the partner’s perceived merits and their appreciation of the actor combine with the actor’s magnitude of significance quest to determine the likelihood of the actor falling in love with the partner. Our model affords a broad account of diverse love phenomena and the derivation of specific hypotheses supported by prior and new data and offers novel avenues for further research on classic issues in romantic love. The discussion considers our model’s unique implications and its relation to other theories of love.

Keywords

close relationshipslovepartner perceptionromantic relationshipssignificance quest theory

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Target Article
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Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 49 , 2026 , e1
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© The Author(s), 2026. Published by Cambridge University Press

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