Benjamin GelbartKathryn V. WalterDaniel Conroy-BeamCasey EstorqueDavid M. BussKelly AsaoAgnieszka SorokowskaPiotr SorokowskiToivo AavikGrace AkelloMohammad Madallh AlhabahbaCharlotte AlmNaumana AmjadAfifa AnjumChiemezie S. AtamaDerya Atamturk DuyarCarlota BatresMons BendixenAicha BensafiaBoris BizumicMahmoud BoussenaMarina ButovskayaSeda CanAntonin CarrierHakan CetinkayaIlona CroyRosa Maria CuetoMarcin CzubDaria DronovaSeda DuralIzzet DuyarBerna ErtugrulAgustin EspinosaIgnacio EstevanCarla Sofia EstevesLuxi FangTomasz FrackowiakJorge Contreras GardunoKarina Ugalde GonzalezFarida GuemazPetra GyurisIskra HerakIvana HromatkoChin-Ming HuiJas Laile JaafarFeng JiangKonstantinos KafetsiosTina KavcicLeif Edward Ottesen KennairNicolas KervynTruong Thi Khanh HaImran Ahmed KhiljiHoang Moc LanAndras LangGeorgina R. LennardErnesto LeonTorun LindholmTrinh Thi LinhGiulia LopezNguyen Van LuotAlvaro MailhosZoi ManesiSarah L. McKercharNorbert MeskoGirishwar MisraConal MonaghanEmanuel C. MoraAlba Moya-GarofanoBojan MusilJean Carlos NatividadeAgnieszka NiemczykGeorge NizharadzeElisabeth OberzaucherAnna OleszkiewiczMohd Sofian Omar-FauzeeIke E. OnyishiBaris OzenerAriela F. PaganiVilmante PakalniskieneMiriam PariseFarid PazhoohiAnnette PisanskiKatarzyna PisanskiNejc PlohlEdna PoncianoCamelia PopaPavol ProkopMuhammad RizwanSvjetlana SalkicevicRuta SargautyteIvan Sarmany-SchullerShivantika SharadRazi Sultan SiddiquiFranco SimonettiStanislava Yordanova StoyanovaMeri TadinacMarco Antonio Correa VarellaChristin-Melanie VauclairLuis Diego VegaDwi Ajeng WidariniGyesook YooMarta ZatkovaMaja Zupancic2025-10-0620251090-513810.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2025.106672http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2025.106672https://gcris.yasar.edu.tr/handle/123456789/7943Love is commonly hypothesized to function as an evolved commitment device disincentivizing the pursuit of romantic alternatives and signaling this motivational shift to a partner. Here we test this possibility against a novel signaling-to-alternatives account in which love instead operates by dissuading alternatives from pursuing oneself. Overall we find stronger support for the latter account. In Studies 1 and 2 we find that partner quality relative to alternatives positively predicts feelings of love and love fails to mitigate the negative effects of desirable alternatives on relationship satisfaction-contradicting the classic commitment device account. In Study 3 using a longitudinal design we replicate these effects and find that changes in partner quality relative to alternatives predict changes in love over time. In Study 4 we replicate the relationship between love and relative partner quality across 44 countries. In Study 5 we find a nearly one-to-one correspondence between the extent to which partner-directed actions are diagnostic of love and reductions in romantic alternatives' attraction to the actor. These results suggest that love may not act as a commitment device in the classic sense by disincentivizing the pursuit of alternatives but by disincentivizing alternatives from pursuing oneself.EnglishRomantic love, Commitment device, Quality of alternatives, Evolutionary psychology, Close relationships, Signaling theoryRELATIONSHIP SATISFACTION, QUALITYArticle