Research reveals that the “crazy in love” are just...

Research reveals that the “crazy in love” are just fooling themselves

On Valentine’s Day this year, UQAM reseachers published a study that revealed that “obsessive passion” - where our love for something is so strong that it replaces our sense of self - hinders our ability to correctly forecast our future emotions. On the flip side, they found that when our passion does not displace our own ego (what they call “harmonious passion”), our vision of the future tends to more accurately reflect the emotional experiences we’ve had in the past.

The researchers didn’t work with Cupid-struck lovers, but the next best thing: World Cup football fans. The 65 study participants were placed on along a continuum, or spectrum, with “obsessive” at one end and “harmonious” at the other. The researchers were able to do this by asking them to agree or disagree with questions such as “Being a soccer fan is so exciting that I sometimes lose control over it.” Similarly, the participants were also asked to forecast on a continuum how they were likely to feel should their team win or lose.

As it turned out, the fans who were rated as “obsessive” did not actually care as much as thought they would win their team won! Or even when they lost! The fans whose reported pasision was “harmonious,” however, had a much better grip on reality.

Video: Beyoncé Knowles “Crazy in Love.” She’s just kidding herself, apparently.

Article: On the accuracy of affective forecasting: The moderating role of passion.
Jérémie Verner-Filion, Marc-André K. Lafrenière, Robert J. Vallerand,
Laboratoire de Recherche sur le Comportement Social, Département de Psychologie, Université du Québec à Montréal, Québec, Canada