Love, intrinsic to human existence, is an integral part of our daily lives: it impacts our emotions, relationships, and overall wellbeing (Heshmati & Donaldson, 2020). Love is a complex, “supreme emotion” (Fredrickson, 2016), shaped by societal values, religious beliefs, and cultural traditions (Campos, 2015; Campos & Shenhav, 2014). Our project proposes to deepen our understanding of love, with a transdisciplinary lens, by identifying both its universal attributes and culturally unique facets. To start, we will identify cultural similarities and differences on what makes people feel loved across six countries with diverse cultural contexts. Our examination will be directed towards the everyday experiences of love across both strong ties (i.e., close relationships with inherent significance, such as family and partners) and weak ties (i.e., distant relationships without presumed roles and responsibilities to one another, such as neighbors, bus driver, etc). We will also explore the link between the cultural understanding of love in these contexts to people’s wellbeing across the six selected countries. To ensure our findings reach a global audience, we will disseminate our research through academic publications, conferences, workshops, and collaborations with organizations dedicated to wellbeing and cultural diversity.
Specifically, we propose to conduct a transdisciplinary, cross-cultural study on everyday experiences of love with the following aims:
Understanding cultural beliefs on love: We aim to uncover shared and distinct beliefs on love in daily life across six countries, each chosen for their unique societal, cultural, and religious tapestry: India, Japan, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, Spain, and Kenya.
Mapping the link between love and wellbeing: Using state-of-the-art Bayesian statistical modeling, we will study the relationship between love and wellbeing, to study the links between everyday life experiences of love and mental health, social connectedness, and life satisfaction. We will also conduct comparative analyses across the six countries to explore if the link between love and wellbeing indicators varies in different cultural landscapes.
Identifying universal facets of love: Through cross-cultural comparisons of the shared beliefs on love across the six countries, we will aim to identify universal elements of love that bridge cultures and foster connections between people.
