Cross-Cultural Variations in Attitudes Toward Love

Abstract

Using the Love Attitude Scale, the first objective of this study was to examine the extent to which Lee’s six-factor colors of love model was able to account for data gathered across a large number of countries in Africa, Asia, South America, and Europe. Confirmatory factor analyses showed that the structure postulated by Lee could be applied across multiple cultures. The second objective was to study possible cross-cultural variations in attitudes related to love. The hypotheses were that (a) factors involving strong personal feelings, such as mania, Eros, and agape, would be largely free of cultural influences and (b) factors involving strict social rules, and consequently low affects, such as Pragma, Storge, and Ludus, would be dependent on cultural influences. Each of these hypotheses was well supported by the data.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Brislin, R. (1986). The wording and translation of research instruments. In W. Lonner & J. Berry (Eds.), Field methods in cross-cultural research. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.

Dion, K. L. , & Dion, K. K. (1988). Romantic love: Individual and cultural perspectives. In R. J. Sternberg & M. L. Barnes (Eds.), The psychology of love. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Frazier, P. A. , & Esterly, E. (1990). Correlates of relationships beliefs: Gender, relationship experience, and relationship satisfaction. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 7, 351-352.

Hatfield, E. , & Rapson, R. L. (1987). Passionate love: New directions in research. In W. H. Jones & D. Perlman (Eds.), Advances in personal relationships (Vol. 1). Greenwich, CT: JAI.

Hendrick, C. , & Hendrick, S. (1986). A theory and method of love. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 50, 392-402.

Hendrick, C. , Hendrick, S. , & Dicke, A. (1998). The love attitudes scale: Short form. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 15, 147-159.

Lasswell, T. E. , & Lasswell, M. E. (1976). I love you but I am not in love with you. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 38, 211-224.

Lee, J. (1973). The colors of love: An exploration of the ways of loving. Toronto, Canada: New Press.

Neto, F. (1993). Love styles and self-representations. Personality and Individual Differences, 14, 795-803.

10.

Neto, F. (1994). Love styles among Portuguese students. Journal of Psychology, 128, 613-616.

11.

Triandis, H. C. (1990). Cross-cultural studies of individualism and collectivism. In E. J. Bermann (Ed.), Cross-cultural perspectives: Nebraska symposium on motivation(pp. 41-133). Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.