The Love Contract

Get this: the editor of Psychology Today began an experiment on Valentine's Day in which he and another consenting adult agree to commit to an experiment - the attempt to fall in love. The couple, prior to signing a Love Contract, were complete strangers, however they both believe love can develop between many people and that all that is necessary is sincere commitment and lots of earnest therapy. Read the introductory article by Robert Epstein: "Editor as Guinea Pig".

My first inclination is to gamble against the success of this couple. I do believe people can potentially fall in love with a plethora of others and not just the 'one perfect match'. However, this Love Contract experiment seems much too forced to grow into anything meaningful. I hope I'm wrong.

...It seems I'm correct. The Venezuelan woman with whom Robert signed the contract decided to cancel after finding him dishearteningly cold. It seems she believed in the idea of love and was sincere in her hope that it would blossom. He however seemed to believe predominantly in science and its power to conquer all mysteries. Love was simply a silly word to describe a conglomerate of scientifically measurable feelings and choices. This seemed to be a conflict between them which proved irreconcilable.