Sexual Orientation and Romantic Love

Romantic love is a psychobehavioral motivational state that facilitates pair-bonding in humans. Evolutionarily, it is thought to help establish and maintain long-term pair-bonds that enhance a heterosexual couple’s reproductive fitness. Romantic love can also occur in same-sex partnerships, yet not much is known, either psychologically or behaviorally, about the similarities or differences in how romantic love manifests in homosexual or bisexual couples compared with heterosexual couples. This study investigated romantic love in a cross-cultural sample of heterosexual, homosexual, and bisexual young adults (N = 783) experiencing romantic love. We analyzed differences between sexual orientation groups on six variables pertaining to different aspects of romantic love. These variables included number of times ever in love; the timing of falling in love relative to starting a romantic relationship; intensity of romantic love; obsessive thinking about a loved one; commitment; and frequency of sex per week. Homosexual females reported a significantly lower frequency of sex per week than heterosexual and bisexual females. Bisexual males reported a greater number of times ever in love than heterosexual males. Other variables revealed small or very small differences between sexual orientation groups. This study provides initial findings indicating that romantic love manifests in somewhat different ways across sexual orientation groups.