Using an evolutionary approach to study romantic love

Since the middle of the last century, there has been a proliferation of evolutionary social sciencesEvolutionary social sciences investigating human social processesHuman social processes and psychology. From the genesis of sociobiologySociobiology, through human ethologyHuman ethology, to human behavioral ecologyHuman behavioural ecologyand evolutionary psychologyHuman evolutionary psychology, Charles Darwin’s (1859) theory of evolutionTheory of evolution by natural selectionNatural selection has provided a reliable overarching framework with which to investigate and understand complex human phenomenaHuman phenomena. This has notably been the case in the fields of human matingHuman mating. Only this decade, however, has a more than piecemeal effort been made to apply an evolutionary approachEvolutionary approach to the study of romantic loveRomantic love. This chapter defines what is meant by an evolutionary approachEvolutionary approach, applied to the study of romantic loveRomantic love. It then outlines the benefits of such an approach. This is followed by a summary of the extant literature using an evolutionary approachEvolutionary approach to study romantic loveRomantic love and a description of the state of the art as it relates to the evolutionary functionsEvolutionary functions and evolutionary history of romantic loveEvolutionary history of romantic love. A description of one interdisciplinary ethological approachEthological approach to studying romantic loveRomantic love that applies evolutionary methods is provided. The chapter concludes with ideas for future research. The result is a chapter that provides a synopsis of the state of the art and guidance to researchers interested in applying evolutionary theoryEvolutionary theory to study romantic loveRomantic love.