Experiences of falling in love: Investigating culture, ethnicity, gender, and speed

This research investigated 12 precursors to falling love — reciprocal liking, appearance, personality, similarity, familiarity, social influence, filling needs, arousal, readiness, specific cues, isolation, and mysteriousness — with respect to culture, ethnicity, gender, and speed. In Study 1, White-American and Asian-American participants wrote narratives of their falling in love experiences. In Study 2, participants from the United States and China wrote narratives and completed self-ratings of the precursors. Few ethnic, gender, and speed differences were obtained in either study, but those found were in the predicted direction. Many cultural differences were found in Study 2, the majority of which were consistent with individualism-collectivism models. Implications for understanding falling in love and directions for future research are discussed.