Title
Reproductive Strategies and Romantic Love in Early Modern Europe
Author
Nicolas Baumard
Département d’Etudes Cognitives, Institut Jean Nicod, École Normale Supérieure, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris Sciences and Lettres Research University
Abstract
In Western Europe, the Early Modern Period is characterized by the rise of tenderness in romantic relationships and the emergence of companionate marriage. Despite a long research tradition, the origins of these social changes remain elusive. In this paper, we build on recent advances in behavioral sciences, showing that romantic emotional investment, which is more culturally variable than sexual attraction, enhances the cohesion of long-term relationships and increases investment in children. Importantly, this long-term strategy is considered especially advantageous when living standards are high. Here, we investigate the relationship between living standards, the emotional components of love expressed in fiction work, and behavioral outcomes related to pair bonding, such as nuptial and fertility rates. We developed natural language processing measures of “emotional investment” (tenderness) and “attraction” (passion) and computed romantic love in English plays (N = 847) as a ratio between the two. We found that living standards generally predicted and temporally preceded variations of romantic love in the Early Modern Period. Furthermore, romantic love preceded an increase in nuptial rates and a decrease in births per marriage. This suggests that increasing living standards in the Early Modern Period may have contributed to the emergence of modern romantic culture.
Keywords
PassionTendernessLiving standardsNuptial ratesDigital humanitiesEarly Modern Period
Object type
Language
English [eng]
Persistent identifier
phaidra.univie.ac.at/o:2045023
Appeared in
Title
Archives of Sexual Behavior
ISSN
0004-0002
Issued
2023
Publication
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Version type
Date issued
2023
Access rights
Rights
Rights statement
© The Author(s) 2023
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