Tara Parker-Pope writes the Well blog for The New York Times. She has been exploring love and the state of marriage.

In this fascinating column, she interviews a researcher who wanted to know how love works in other countries when romantic love is not held up as the ideal. You could say in the U.S., romance does not enjoy the greatest p.r. much of the time, if movies are any indicator. Nevertheless, this nation likely is the leader in seeing romantic love as the model for relationships.

In China, elders arrange marriages.

The researchers’ exploratory efforts showed that the same part of the brain lights up when someone is romantically attracted to another although their cultures may influence them to ignore those feelings.

Forget that one say the elders. You will take him. Their culture sees romantic love seem negative and risky.

This is the first study and the team plans more. It is important to stress that these are preliminary findings.

The New York Times

…”There are reasons to think that culture and country influence how we love — or at least how we express it. For instance, in surveys, people from China typically describe romantic love “in much less positive terms,” notes Art Aron, a professor of psychology at Stony Brook who has conducted several love and brain scan studies.

“In a culture with a tradition of arranged marriages where romantic love is disruptive, questionnaire studies do suggest there might be differences,” Dr. Aron notes. “Romantic love is not entirely a great thing even for us. It has a tragic and dark side if you fall in love and the person doesn’t love you back or you’re in a relationship with someone else.”

…”“I think what we take away from this is that love is not merely a cultural construction,” Dr. Aron said. “What the study does suggest is that love is a powerful force in human life. What is going on at the deep level of the brain is pretty much the same everywhere. But of course how we talk and think about it, what we do to show it to others, etc., may well be shaped by culture.”

Source: New York Times, May 24, 2010