Love is also for the young at heart

By Laura Schaefer

Love is a many-splendored thing … and a very surprising thing, too. As if you needed proof of that, here are 25 funny little facts about love. Study them, scratch your head over them, and share them with someone you fancy.

1. Men who kiss their wives in the morning live five years longer than those who don’t.
   
2. People are more likely to tilt their heads to the right when kissing instead of the left (65 percent of people go to the right!)
   
3. When it comes to doing the deed early in the relationship, 78 percent of women would decline an intimate rendezvous if they had not shaved their legs or underarms.
   
4. Feminist women are more likely than other females to be in a romantic relationship.
   
5. Two-thirds of people report that they fall in love with someone they’ve known for some time vs. someone that they just met.
   
6. There’s a reason why office romances occur: The single biggest predictor of love is proximity.
   
7. Falling in love can induce a calming effect on the body and mind and raises levels of nerve growth factor for about a year, which helps to restore the nervous system and improves the lover’s memory.
   
8. Love can also exert the same stress on your body as deep fear. You see the same physiological responses — pupil dilation, sweaty palms, and increased heart rate.
   
9.  Brain scans show that people who view photos of a beloved experience an activation of the caudate — the part of the brain involving cravings.
   
10. The women of the Tiwi tribe in the South Pacific are married at birth.
    
11. The “Love Detector” service from Korean cell phone operator KTF uses technology that is supposed to analyze voice patterns to see if a lover is speaking honestly and with affection. Users later receive an analysis of the conversation delivered through text message that breaks down the amount of affection, surprise, concentration and honesty of the other speaker.
    
12. Eleven percent of women have gone online and done research on a person they were dating or were about to meet, versus seven percent of men.
    
13. Couples’ personalities converge over time to make partners more and more similar.
    
14. The oldest known love song was written 4,000 years ago and comes from an area between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers.
    
15. The tradition of the diamond engagement ring comes from Archduke Maximillian of Austria who, in the 15th century, gave a diamond ring to his fiancée, Mary of Burgundy.
    
16. Forty-three percent of women prefer their partners never sign “love” to a card unless they are ready for commitment.
    
17. People who are newly in love produce decreased levels of the hormone serotonin — as low as levels seen in people with obsessive-compulsive disorder. Perhaps that’s why it’s so easy to feel obsessed when you’re smitten.
    
18. Philadelphia International Airport finished as the No. 1 best airport for making a love connection, according to an online survey.
    
19. According to mathematical theory, we should date a dozen people before choosing a long-term partner; that provides the best chance that you’ll make a love match.
    
20. A man’s beard grows fastest when he anticipates sex.
    
21. Every Valentine’s Day, Verona, the Italian city where Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet took place, receives around 1,000 letters addressed to Juliet.
    
    When we get dumped, for a period of time we love the person who rejected us even more, says Dr. Helen Fisher of Rutgers University and author of Why We Love. The brain regions that lit up when we were in a happy union continue to be active.
    
22. People telling the story of how they fell in love overwhelmingly believe the process is out of their control.
    
23. Familiarity breeds comfort and closeness … and romance.
    
24. One in five long-term love relationships began with one or both partners being involved with others.
    
25. OK, this one may not surprise you, but we had to share it: Having a romantic relationship makes both genders happier. The stronger the commitment, the greater the happiness!