What science tells us about love
Decades of research in relationship psychology, made accessible. Bowlby, Gottman, Sternberg — their discoveries, explained clearly.
Scientific guides in English
In-depth syntheses based on international research
Attachment Theory: Bowlby's Legacy on Adult Relationships
John Bowlby's attachment theory — how our earliest relational experiences shape our adult romantic relationships. A foundational guide for understanding why we love the way we do.
Couple Communication: What 40 Years of Research Reveals
Four decades of direct couple observation by John Gottman and his teams have precisely identified the communication behaviors that predict long-term relationship satisfaction — and those that predict breakup.
Loneliness and Social Connection: What Science Reveals
Loneliness is not merely emotional discomfort — it is a biological alarm signal with measurable effects on physical health. John Cacioppo's work revolutionized our understanding of this fundamental human need for connection.
The 5 Love Languages by Gary Chapman: Theory and Practical Cases
In 1992, marriage counselor Gary Chapman proposed that everyone expresses and receives love through one dominant 'language' among five. An idea that became immensely popular — and that research nuances.
Love Styles: John Alan Lee's Typology and Sternberg's Triangle
In 1973, sociologist John Alan Lee identified 6 distinct love styles, from passionate love to altruistic love. Understanding your style — and your partner's — is a key to improving your relationship.
Relationship Satisfaction: Lessons from Scientific Research
Relationship satisfaction is one of the most studied topics in relationship psychology. Why do some couples maintain lasting happiness while others fade? The answer is less mysterious than one might think.
Relationship Satisfaction: A Science-Based Guide for Couples
Relationship satisfaction is not a fixed trait. Decades of research show which habits, skills, and expectations protect couples from decline and which accelerate it.
Attachment Theory in Practice: Secure, Anxious and Avoidant Styles
A practical guide to applying attachment theory in adult romantic relationships: understanding secure, anxious and avoidant patterns, and the pathways toward change.
Latest articles
Scientific perspectives on human relationships
Attachment Therapy for Anxious Attachment: How to Choose
Anxious attachment can shift with the right therapeutic approach. This guide compares EFT, AEDP, MBT and CBT, explains how to find an attachment-informed therapist, and gives a practical checklist for the first session.
Avoidant Attachment in Relationships: Why Intimacy Feels Threatening
Avoidant attachment is not a lack of love but a protective strategy against intimacy. Two forms exist: dismissive and fearful. Both create distance that partners can learn to soften.
Is Anxious Attachment a Life Sentence? A Therapist on Change
In this editorial interview, Dr Sarah Mitchell, LMFT, discusses the neuroscience of anxious attachment, why it feels like a life sentence, and what the research actually says about changing attachment patterns through relationships and therapy.
Managing Couple Conflict: A Research-Based Guide
Managing couple conflict starts with learning to disagree without getting hurt. John Gottman, Sue Johnson, and relationship researchers show that how you fight — and how you repair — matters more than how often.
Attachment Styles at Work and in Friendships
Attachment theory began with Bowlby's infant-caregiver research and was extended to romantic love by Hazan and Shaver in 1987. Later research, notably Mikulincer and Shaver's broader program, extends the same framework to friendships and workplace relationships. This guide explores how anxious and avoidant patterns show up with managers, colleagues, and friends, with two concrete illustrative scenarios.
Gottman's 5:1 Ratio and Bids for Connection Explained
Gottman and Levenson's 1992 study reported an approximate 5:1 ratio of positive to negative behavior among stable couples during conflict -- a descriptive average, not a validated threshold. Driver and Gottman's 2004 concept of 'bids for connection' and 'turning toward' adds a complementary lens on everyday micro-interactions. This guide presents both findings honestly, including independent replication failures and a widely-circulated statistic that does not actually appear in the paper it is attributed to.
Editorial Interview: Can Adults Become Earned Securely Attached?
This documented editorial interview examines the concept of 'earned secure attachment' from Adult Attachment Interview research. It presents the supportive evidence (Pearson et al. 1994, Saunders et al. 2011) alongside the major prospective study (Roisman et al. 2002) that challenges the popular narrative -- an honest treatment of a genuinely contested area of attachment science.
Editorial Interview: Nonviolent Communication and Attachment
This documented editorial interview presents Nonviolent Communication (Rosenberg) and attachment research (Mikulincer & Shaver) as complementary but separately-derived frameworks for understanding couple conflict. It includes Gottman's physiological flooding research, honestly flags that no integrated NVC-attachment research program exists, and explicitly avoids Gottman's discredited divorce-prediction statistics.
Reference researchers
Those whose work transformed our understanding of human relationships
Available in French and English
All our scientific guides are published in both languages to reach the international community of relationship researchers.