Forget 'The One': Most people fall in love TWICE in their lifetime

"'People talk about falling in love all the time, but this is the first study to actually ask how many times that happens across the lifetime,' said Dr Amanda Gesselman, lead author of the study. 'For most people, passionate love turns out to be something that happens only a few times across their entire life.' From songs to TV programmes, falling passionately in love has been widely documented for centuries. However, until now, how many times people actually experience it has remained a mystery."

"'Relatively little is known about how often people experience passionate love across the lifespan, or how this frequency differs by demographic characteristics,' the researchers explained in their study, published in Interpersona. 'If passionate love is a foundational element of romantic development, which in turn positively predicts mental and physical well-being, then it is important to understand who experiences it and how often.'"

A sample of 10,036 single adults aged 18 to 99 were asked how many times they had been passionately in love. Responses showed 14.2% reported never experiencing passionate love, 27.8% once, 30.3% twice, 16.8% three times, and 10.9% four or more times. Most people therefore experience passionate love only a few times, with the largest single group reporting two occurrences. A minority reported never having felt passionate love while a smaller segment experienced many episodes. Passionate love is described as foundational to romantic development and linked to positive mental and physical well-being.

Read at Mail Online