Husband and wife University of Chicago researchers John and Stephanie Cacioppo don't only have personal experience as their basis for what love is; science also seems to be giving them recognizable patterns regarding love and lust.

The couple's study found that eye movements are potential indicators of whether a person is in love or in lust with another individual.

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Although it seems presumably obvious, the research tandem's results showed that participants were preoccupied with the face when they felt romantic love, while their attention shifted to the body when they felt lust more than love.

Stephanie, Director of the High-Performance Electrical Neuro Imaging Laboratory, stated, "Although little is currently known about the science of love at first sight or how people fall in love, these patterns of response provide the first clues regarding how automatic attentional processes, such as eye gaze, may differentiate feelings of love from feelings of desire toward strangers."

Male and female students at the University of Geneva took part in the said study.

The students were made to view several black-and-white photos of people they've never met.

Part one of the study revolved around participants viewing pictures of young adult heterosexual couples looking at each other. For part two, on the other hand, participants were made to look at photos of conventionally attractive individuals who looked directly at the camera.

There were no nude or sexually explicit photos included in the series of pictures shown.

Participants viewed the different blocks of pictures through a computer monitor and were asked to quickly decide which ones evoked feelings of sexual desire or romantic love. There was no significant difference in the time participants took to make their decisions.

Eye movements and judgment happened in as little as half a second and produced different eye movement patterns, showing how quickly the brain could process both romantic feelings and sexual desire.

According to John, Director of the Center for Cognitive and Social Neuroscience, "An eye-tracking paradigm may eventually offer a new avenue of diagnosis in clinicians' daily practice or for routine clinical exams in psychiatry and/or couple therapy." 

TagsLove, lust, eye movement, University of Chicago, couple therapy