10 Silly Things We Do When We Are In Love

Love can bring out the best, worst, and silliest in people. When you love someone they become your prime consideration at the expense of all others. This can leave you doing things you wouldn’t normally do and looking sillier than your not-in-love self would allow you to look. But, to most people, the intense feeling of being in love is worth a few personality changes. A few or…maybe a hundred? I’ll go easy and present 10 silly things that many people do when they are in love.

Walk Slower

This one applies mostly to men. Men tend to adjust their speed – meaning, in most cases, they slow down – when they are walking with their female partner. Science backs this up. A 2013 study, in which the walking speeds of male and female partners and male and female friends were recorded, found that males slowed down 0.2 mph to equal the speed of their female partner who did not change speed while both males and females in friendships adjusted their walking speed to meet in the middle.

Speak with a Higher Voice

This change applies to both women and men. Studies have shown that females tend to talk in a higher voice to people they are attracted to. But men in relationships may also speak higher to stay on the same emotional wavelength as their partner.

Laugh Constantly

People who are in love tend to laugh more – with their partner, without their partner, and by themselves. Being in love means that your brain releases additional dopamine, serotonin and oxytocin, which are chemicals that will leave you feeling good, laughing more, and smiling more. You may even catch yourself smiling and laughing while thinking about your partner when he or she is not around.

Stare At Your Reflection

After falling for someone, most people start caring more about their appearance. This can lead to more time staring at oneself in the mirror. It can also lead to unnecessary beauty and clothing purchases. People will go to great lengths to look good for the ones they love.

Listen to Songs On Repeat

Songs can become symbols of love. When you and your partner bond over a song, or a song happens to play during a defining moment of the relationship, it will have special significance from that day forward. Such songs may then be played obsessively.

Rely On Your Partner to Make Decisions

People who are in love become less like individuals and more like a unit. Decisions start being made in tandem. Partners can rely so much on the other’s input that when one needs to make a decision on their own they find themselves unable to do so.

Call Your Partner Strange Names and Talk in Strange Voices

Besides calling your partner “baby,” “sweetie,” “cutie,” and other nicknames that you could never have pictured yourself using, you and your partner may engage in what can only be described as “baby talk.” This cutesy-wutesy vernacular is used by many lovers and has actually been explained by science. Talking in the same strange way strengthens an intimate relationship like smiling at another person who is also smiling strengthens a platonic relationship. Psychologists call this behavior “mirroring.”

Take Unnecessary Risks

This is another male-specific symptom of love. Research has shown that men take greater risks when they’re in a romantic relationship. Men have been conditioned as protectors, and this instinct is intensified when they’re in love, which can then manifest in dangerous and unnecessary ways. Love was found to have no effect on female risk taking.

Become Dumber

When a person is in love, their mind tends to focus on this fact. It should come as no surprise, then, that research has found that such people are less able to focus on important tasks. This love-induced cognitive impairment has been compared to drug and alcohol intoxication.

Plan Faaaaaar Into the Future

Homes, pets, wedding vows, honeymoon destinations, and children are some of the thoughts that may pop into the head of someone who has just fallen in love. Although these thoughts may not be realistic, or have no chance of being realized until far into the future, they are the most natural things in the world.

Peer reviewed sources:

Point 1 https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0076576