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What binds a couple together?
Ever wondered what is the "chemistry" that binds couples together? Shared intelligence, looks, and values count for a lot, but biology has a role to play too, according to experts.
Ever wondered what is the "chemistry" that binds couples together? Shared intelligence, looks, and values count for a lot, but biology has a role to play too, according to experts.
"Nobody really knows why we fall in love with one person and not another. Factors like intelligence and shared values are only half of the puzzle. The other half is how your biology influences who you fall in love with," Helen Fisher of Rutgers University in New Jersey told the 'New Scientist'.
In fact, according to her, temperament -- that innate, biological element of personality all people are born with and which stays with them through life, could well be involved in romantic attachments.
Fisher started with her own model of temperament that she says is more firmly rooted in biology than previous ones.
Drawing on a large body of work on the genetics and neurochemistry of personality, she divided people into four basic temperament types -- explorers, builders, directors and negotiators.
Each type is associated with elevated activity in one or two neurochemical systems in the brain which lead to a set of stereotypical personality traits. "We all express all four temperaments to some degree, but we express some more than others. I'm a builder and an explorer," she said.
