TWO CONCEPTS OF ROMANTIC LOVE 1 Do People Distinguish Between Romantic Love Itself And A Good Romantic Relationship?

New research procedures that provided a direct test of lay concepts of romantic love supported the following conclusions: Laypersons use two different concepts when making judgments about love relationships: (a) an essentialist concept having to do with the basic question of whether person A loves person B, and (b) a prototypical concept having to do with what would optimally be present in a good romantic relationship. All participants regarded the presence of love itself as requiring one or a small number of essential characteristics to exist; foremost among these was care for the partner’s wellbeing. In contrast, they viewed much larger set of characteristics, 12 of the 14 investigated from the literature, as ones that should be present in a good romantic relationship, and whose absence would represent serious deficiencies from such a relationship.