Saed News: The Kowal team plans to follow 2,000 individuals in romantic relationships in Poland for one year to examine how the intensity of love affects mental health and quality of life.
According to SAEDNEWS, results from one of the largest global studies on love, conducted on 61,000 people across 81 countries, show that individualistic and self-focused people experience love with less intensity than others. However, researchers emphasize that this phenomenon is not necessarily a weakness.
According to Julie Aitken Schermer from the University of Western Canada, younger generations today are more self-oriented than in the past, and social media and modern technology are key drivers of this change.
Marta Kowal from the University of Wrocław in Poland and her colleagues studied over 61,000 adults aged 18 to 90 and found that:
People with an individualistic mindset feel less intense romantic love toward their partners.
This result remained consistent even after accounting for gender, age, and economic status.
A replication study involving 6,000 people from 50 countries confirmed the same findings.
Thomas Curran from the London School of Economics explains: “Individualists are constantly concerned with how others perceive them. In social interactions, instead of openness, they think in terms of competition, which makes vulnerability difficult.” He adds that deep romantic love requires showing one’s full self to another person.
Yaroslava Varrela Valetova from the University of São Paulo explains that reduced focus on a romantic partner can create opportunities to:
Invest more energy in other relationships
Focus on personal interests
Maintain better performance in work and studies
Curran further suggests that individualism may weaken the ability to bond with others. He notes that constant concern about one’s image leads to a competitive mindset, where every interaction feels like a struggle for limited resources.
He also explains that this makes vulnerability difficult, which is essential for deep love: showing your full self to another person becomes challenging.
However, there are ways to overcome these effects. Schermer suggests that approaches such as talk therapy can help individuals see themselves as part of a larger community rather than isolated beings.
The Kowal team will now track 2,000 people in romantic relationships in Poland for one year to investigate how the intensity of love affects mental health and quality of life.
