Marta KowalAdam BodeKarolina KoszalkowskaS. Craig RobertsBiljana GjoneskaDavid FrederickAnna StudzinskaDmitrii DubrovDmitry GrigoryevToivo AavikPavol ProkopCaterina GranoHakan CetinkayaDerya Atamtuerk DuyarRoberto BaioccoCarlota BatresYakhlef BelkacemMerve BogaNana BurduliAli R. CanRazieh ChegeniWilliam J. ChopikYahya DonSeda DuralIzzet DuyarEdgardo EtchezaharFeten Fekih-RomdhaneTomasz FrackowiakFelipe E. GarciaTalia Gomez YepesFarida GuemazBrahim B. HamdaouiMehmet KoyuncuMiguel Landa-BlancoSamuel LinsTiago MarotMarlon Mayorga-LascanoMoises MebarakMara MorelliIzuchukwu L. G. NdukaiheMohd Sofian Omar FauzeeMa. Criselda Tengco PacquingMiriam PariseFarid PazhoohiEkaterine PirtskhalavaKoen PonnetUlf-Dietrich ReipsMarc Eric Santos ReyesAyseguel SahinFatima Zahra SahliOksana SenykOgnen SpasovskiSingha TulyakulJoaquin UngarettiMona VintilaTatiana VolkodavAnna WlodarczykGyesook YooBenjamin GelbartPiotr SorokowskiFrederick, DavidKowal, MartaRoberts, S. CraigBode, AdamKoszalkowska, KarolinaKoszałkowska, KarolinaGjoneska, BiljanaSorokowski, Piotr2025-10-0620241045-67671936-477610.1007/s12110-024-09482-62-s2.0-85213068257http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12110-024-09482-6https://gcris.yasar.edu.tr/handle/123456789/7938https://doi.org/10.1007/s12110-024-09482-6Given the ubiquitous nature of love numerous theories have been proposed to explain its existence. One such theory refers to love as a commitment device suggesting that romantic love evolved to foster commitment between partners and enhance their reproductive success. In the present study we investigated this hypothesis using a large-scale sample of 86310 individual responses collected across 90 countries. If romantic love is universally perceived as a force that fosters commitment between long-term partners we expected that individuals likely to suffer greater losses from the termination of their relationships-including people of lower socioeconomic status those with many children and women-would place a higher value on romantic love compared to people with higher status those with fewer children and men. These predictions were supported. Additionally we observed that individuals from countries with a higher (vs. lower) Human Development Index placed a greater level of importance on romantic love suggesting that modernization might influence how romantic love is evaluated. On average participants worldwide were unwilling to commit to a long-term romantic relationship without love highlighting romantic love's universal importance.Englishinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessRomantic love, Importance of love, Evolutionary theory, Parental Investment theory, Kephart, EmotionROMANTIC LOVE, MARITAL SATISFACTION, SOCIOECONOMIC-STATUS, INTERNAL STRUCTURE, MARRIAGE, ATTACHMENT, SELECTION, BELIEFS, MATE, SEXParental Investment TheoryEmotionEvolutionary TheoryRomantic LoveKephartImportance of LoveArticle