This book is a cutting-edge tour de force that traces human family life from its origins in Africa over 4 million years ago to the Internet dating sites and bedrooms of today. It covers various aspects such as natural courting ploys, the biology of adultery, love addictions, chemically-based personality styles, worldwide patterns of divorce, and how brain science can help in making and keeping happy partnerships. Fisher examines marriage and divorce in 58 societies and adultery in 42 cultures, arguing that modern patterns of love and sex echo our ancient past, and she remains optimistic about the future of relationships in the digital age.
This book provides a new way to understand relationships by analyzing four broad, biologically-based styles of thinking and behaving linked with the dopamine, serotonin, testosterone, and estrogen systems in the brain. Based on her pioneering work and data from over 28,000 individuals, Fisher explains how these personality types influence who we love and how to use this knowledge to build and sustain happy long-term relationships. The book includes a scientifically developed questionnaire, the Fisher Temperament Inventory, which has been validated by brain scanning experiments and used by millions worldwide.
In this book, Helen Fisher uses fMRI brain scanning to investigate the brain circuitry of romantic love, arguing that it is a primary mating drive hardwired into our brains by millions of years of evolution. Fisher discusses romantic love among peoples around the world, the activation of brain regions associated with intense addiction when in love, and the evolution of love. She also explores other primary mating drives such as lust and attachment, and the future of romantic love in the digital age.
We long for love. We die for love. We kill for love. But why do we love? Cohosts Dr. Heather Berlin and Dr. Christoph Koch ask this question to Helen Fisher, PhD. who dedicated her career to researching romantic love. In this episode of Science of Perception Box, we explore how the act of being in love or out of love changes how we view ourselves and the world around us.
Dr. Fisher was a biological anthropologist, Senior Research Fellow at The Kinsey Institute, and Chief Science Advisor to Match.com. She used brain scanning (fMRI) to study the neural systems associated with the sex drive, romantic love, attachment, rejection, love addiction, long-term partnership happiness, and the biological foundations of human personality. She conducted extensive research on the evolution, biology, and psychology of human sexuality, monogamy, adultery, and divorce.
Dr. Heather Berlin is a neuroscientist, clinical psychologist, and Professor of Psychiatry and Neuroscience at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City.
Dr. Christof Koch is Chief Scientist for the Tiny Blue Dot Foundation and the current Meritorious Investigator and former President of the Allen Institute for Brain Science.
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Episode Chapters:
(00:00) - Introduction to the Science of Perception Box
(02:03) - Exploring Love and Heartbreak
(05:16) - The Brain Chemistry of Love
(06:41) - The Evolutionary Purpose of Love
(09:35) - The Complexities of Romantic Relationships
(20:53) - The Impact of Rejection and Heartbreak
(24:10) - The Distraction Test and Emotional Response
(25:15) - Love as an Addiction
(27:31) - Phases of Breakup and Emotional Recovery
(31:21) - The Concept of Slow Love
(33:05) - Impact of Internet on Modern Dating
(38:58) - Perception Box Questions
(44:57) - Final Reflections and Closing Thoughts
Science of Perception Box 
