They’ve lost that lovin’ feeling.
Women fall out of love before their husbands do — and a life of children and chores could be the culprit.
A new study, published in the Journal of the Association for Psychological Science, found that women report a more dramatic decrease in feelings of love over time, compared to men.
One reason for this, the research showed, was that women are more in love than men at the beginning of their relationships —giving the fairer sex further to fall out of love.
The big buzzkill for the ladies? Getting stuck running the household and raising a family, with a perceived lack of pitching in by their male partners.
To conduct the study, Dr. Saurabh Bhargava, a professor of economics at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, tracked the emotions of nearly 3,900 heterosexual adults with different relationship timelines, ranging from recently engaged to married for decades.
Participants were asked to record who they were with and how they felt every 30 minutes for ten days, followed by a longer questionnaire regarding the type and target of their love.
The study revealed that women are far more likely than men to report moments of feeling love early in a relationship, but it doesn’t last.
Women in longer relationships experienced feelings of love while spending time with their partner nearly 60 percent less often than those in newer relationships. Meanwhile, feelings of love only decreased over time for men by 0.4 percent.
Women who fell head over heels reported that fiery feelings of passion fizzled even faster.
Women feeling “excited love”while with their partners dropped nearly 80 percent over time. Again, the decline was much smaller for men (30 percent).
How they’re feeling likely has to do with what they’re doing.
The study found that as they settle into their relationship, women spend more time doing chores and cooking, while men increasingly spend time relaxing and napping.
Bhargava also noted that having children could dampen a couple’s flame, as feelings of love could be reallocated to children and women assume the majority of childcare duties.
Thank goodness then —according to the study —for long days at the office. Couples reported a large increase in love for each other when reunited after being apart for at least eight hours, no matter how long they had been together.
Everything seemed to even out at a certain point, among the study participants — after about seven years of marriage, women and men were about equally as likely to report being in love, while also saying that they were enjoying each other’s company.
“I think there is an optimistic interpretation of the data — even though romantic passion and romantic love decline, they do persist,” Bhargava told The Times (London).
In another recent development, scientists recently claimed to have discovered why we just can’t stop thinking about our person when we fall in love.
While it has long been understood that romantic love spurs the release of the so-called “love hormone” responsible for the euphoria one feels when falling in love, this new study found that being in love can cause part of the brain to scramble — ensuring that your paramour becomes the center of your universe.
However, experts admit that although humans have mused about love for centuries, we’re still at a loss.
“We actually know very little about the evolution of romantic love,” lead researcher Adam Bode said.
