The Biological Evolution of Love: The new book by Victor Karandashev

The author has compiled multiple scholarly publications that have been available about the evolutionary science of love over the recent couple of centuries. He systematically reviewed research findings and discoveries focusing on the evolutionary processes that have been occurring throughout thousands and millions of years.

This book presents love and relationships from the perspectives of evolutionary biology, paleontology, archaeology, anthropology, neuroscience, psychology, and other disciplines, presenting the topics on Basic Evolutionary Foundations of Love and How Bodily and Nervous Systems Enable Love.

The Biological Evolution of Love offers the most extensive and comprehensive review of love and relationships resembling love across various species, including plants, birds, and animals, especially mammals, as well as early human ancestors. The chapters of the book include three areas of relationships:

The Biological Evolution of Love in Mating

The Biological Evolution of Love Between Parents and Offspring

The Biological Evolution of Ingroup Love

Presentations for the 3rd Conference on Love and Relationship Studies are posted

The Institute of Love Studies is excited to inform that pre-recorded presentations for the 3rd International Conference on Love and Relationship Studies are posted on the Institute’s YouTube Channel, and they are available for participants to watch and listen to in the following days.

Meanwhile, we have posted the (tentative) Program of thematic panel sessions. You can download it at the webpage of The 3rd Conference on Love and Relationship Studies.

We will send more detailed instructions, updates, and links to the Zoom meetings of the thematic panel sessions on 6, 7, and 8 March for participants in the upcoming days in the Conference listserv to keep them in the loop.

If you have any questions about pre-recorded presentations, the conference schedule, and what to expect at thematic panel sessions, please contact us at the email: love.studies.institute@gmail.com

Registration for participation in the Third Conference on Love and Relationship Studies as attendees (without presentations) is open. Those interested in attending the conference—watching pre-recorded presentations and participating in thematic panel sessions—may contact the Institute of Love Studies with their request at the email: love.studies.institute@gmail.com

Looking forward to the upcoming 3rd Conference on Love and Relationship Studies

Mateo Martinez, administrative assistant,

Administrative assistant, on behalf of the International Institute of Love Studies

The Program of the 3rd International Conference on Love and Relationship Studies Is Posted.

The conference events will be held virtually via online videoconferencing, including both asynchronous and synchronous formats on 6, 7, and 8 March, 2026. See more details at https://love-studies-institute.org/third-international-conference-on-love-and-relationship-studies-online/

Registration for participation in the Third Conference on Love and Relationship Studies as attendees (without presentations) is open. Those interested in attending the conference—watching pre-recorded presentations and participating in thematic panel sessions—may contact the Institute of Love Studies with their request at the email: love.studies.institute@gmail.com

Asynchronous format. Attendees have access to pre-recorded conference presentations posted on the YouTube channel of the International Institute of Love Studies. They watch pre-recorded presentations on their own schedule, at their own pace, and in their own time zone. This asynchronous format of the conference events allows for more flexibility.

Participants can submit their questions and comments to presenters ahead of time or during thematic panel sessions. The chairs of specific panel sessions will aggregate these questions and comments for discussion in thematic panel sessions in designated real-time slots.

Synchronous format. Thematic panel sessions of the conference will take place via online live streaming in Zoom on 6, 7, and 8 March, 2026, according to their schedule. The Program of Thematic Panel Sessions are posted at the conference website.

Regular deadline for submissions for the Third Conference on Love and Relationship Studies

The regular deadline for submission of proposals for the Third International Conference on Love and Relationship Studies 2026 is November 20, 2025

The International Institute of Love Studies plans to convene the Third Conference on Love and Relationship Studies on 6–8 March 2026 in an online format with pre-recorded talks, followed by the Zoom livestreaming of thematic panel sessions.

We have received a flock of early bird submissions for the conference and notified those selected to be included in the program and present.

We kindly remind you that the regular deadline for submitting the abstracts of proposals is November 20, 2025. Notifications of acceptance in the conference program will be sent by November 30.

Regular registration for presenters at the Third Conference on Love and Relationship Studies will open on December 1, 2025, and information will be posted on the conference website.

You can see more information at the Conference website, along with the Submission Form for Conference Presentation Proposalsand Guidelines for Submissions.

If you have any questions about the conference schedule or submission process, please contact us at love.studies.institute@gmail.com

Call for Proposals for the Third Conference on Love and Relationship Studies 2026

After the great success of the First and Second International Conferences on Love Studies, which the Institute of Love Studies convened in 2024 and 2025, many researchers and practitioners from around the world expressed interest in having the Third Conference focused on research on love and relationships.

The International Institute of Love Studies plans to convene the Third Conference on Love and Relationship Studies on 6–8 March 2026 in an online format with pre-recorded talks, followed by the Zoom livestreaming of thematic panel sessions.

The aim of the conferences on love and relationship studies is to bring together researchers, practitioners from various disciplines, and non-academic professionals to speak about their research projects and findings. The conference will be multidisciplinary and international in its scope. Research on various kinds of love is relevant for presentations and discussions at this conference. We are open to different methodologies from different fields of research. We consider love in the varieties of its meanings, cultural models, social forms, individual types, internal experiences and expressions, and interpersonal relationships.

The Advisory Board invites the submissions of proposals for presentations at the Conference on a wide range of love-related topics. We welcome researchers, practitioners, and other professionals from any discipline and field of study and practice to present and engage in discussion.

We invite submissions of original, unpublished work. Submissions must represent new research or ideas that have not been presented at any previous conference or published in a journal. Please be aware that submitting a presentation that is concurrently submitted for publication or presentation elsewhere is a violation of publication ethics.

By submitting, authors confirm that their work is original and exclusive to this conference. A presentation of the work in progress is welcome, as long as it presents original findings specifically for this conference.

The call for proposals is open.

The early bird deadline for submitting the abstracts of proposals is October 20, 2025. Notifications of acceptance in the conference program will be sent by October 30.

Early bird registration for presenters at the Third Conference on Love and Relationship Studies will open on November 1, 2025, and information will be posted on the conference website.

The regular deadline for submitting the abstracts of proposals is November 20, 2025. Notifications of acceptance in the conference program will be sent by November 30.

Regular registration for presenters at the Third Conference on Love and Relationship Studies will open on December 1, 2025, and information will be posted on the conference website.

You can see more information at the Conference website, along with the Submission Form for Conference Presentation Proposals and Guidelines for Submissions.

If you have any questions about the conference schedule or submission process, please contact us at love.studies.institute@gmail.com

2025 loveresearch.info Symposium abstract submission open

Each year, loveresearch.info hosts a Symposium for researchers to present their findings on love in romantic relationships.

The 2025 loveresearch.info Symposium will be held on Friday 31 October 2025 via Zoom.

Presentations will be 12 minutes with 3 minutes for questions.

Abstract submission is open at the following link: https://anu.au1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_8hPY6IVsbjc4xoO 

The submission deadline is Tuesday 30 September 2025.

Successful applicants will be informed on 1 October 2025.

Please note that presentations must relate to love in romantic relationships (e.g., romantic love, passionate love, companionate love, intimacy, passion, commitment) rather than simply romantic relationships.

Ellen Berscheid, a Prominent Researcher in the Psychology of Love, Passed Away

With profound sadness, the Institute of Love Studies shares news that Ellen Berscheid, an American social psychologist and one of the pioneering researchers in the studies of love and interpersonal relationships, passed away on May 22, 2025.

Ellen S. Berscheid (1936-2025), a distinguished figure in social psychology, significantly influenced our understanding of interpersonal attraction, love, and close relationships. Her innovative research, in collaboration with her prominent colleague Elaine Hatfield (formerly Walster), substantially contributed to relationship science and established it as a legitimate scientific field of research.

Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP), colleagues in Social Psychology, and public media published tributes to her life and scholarly achievements.

The Diversity of Love Journal has published a Tribute for Ellen Berscheid, a Prominent Researcher in the Social Psychology of Love and Relationship where you can read more about her outstanding contributions to the psychological explorations of love.

TLC Global Gratitude Summit Announcement

The International Institute of Love Studies is pleased to share the announcement from The Love Consortium about The Global Gratitude Summit that will take place on Wednesday, May 14, 2025.

The Love Consortium is thrilled to announce our 2025 Global Gratitude Summit to take place on Wednesday, May 14 from 9:00 AM until 3:00 PM ET! This free, virtual event will feature talks and discussion with gratitude researchers around the world. Sessions will feature cutting-edge science across a range of topics including the development of gratitude, gratitude across cultures, and gratitude and wellbeing. In addition to leading scholars on the science of gratitude, we will also hear from emerging scholars, including TLC’s Gratitude Fellows, who will share updates on their funded collaborative projects using data from the Global Gratitude Dataverse.

They encourage you to visit their website for the full event details, or click here to register!

The Institute of Love Studies also wants to draw your attention to the following articles on love as gratitude and appreciation published in the Diversity of Love Journal:
Gratitude and Love in Cultural Perspective
How People Experience the Meaning of Gratitude
How People Feel Gratitude
Emotions Associated with Gratitude
Why Is Gratitude Important?
Take Notice of Your Partner’s Being Grateful to You
How Gratitude Changes Our Relationships
How Gratitude Benefits Our Relationships
Studies Show That Gratitude Is Good for Our Well-Being

Love and Relationship Studies around the World: Call for Chapter Proposals

The International Institute of Love Studies invites the presenters of the 1st and 2nd conferences on love studies to submit a proposal for a chapter in the edited volume “Love and Relationship Studies around the World.”

The International Institute of Love Studies has a tentative agreement for publication of this volume with Springer Publishing. The Institute will sign an official contract with Springer for this publication after collecting all accepted abstracts.

This interdisciplinary edited volume is intended to publish a special collection of love studies based on the recent research presented by participants at these conferences. The book will help present the growing research on love across disciplines and cultures from around the world. It will serve as a resource for both researchers and practitioners.

The submitted proposals, abstracts, and manuscripts must be in English.

The Formatting of Proposals

The title of the submission should be a concise summary of the research topic (up to 20 words). An abstract of a proposal should be from 400 to 500 words and include the following sections:

Research background of the study: an introductory part of a research report that describes the context and significance of the study topic by outlining existing knowledge of love. Research background sets the stage for the aim of a study and research question by providing a foundation to understand the study’s rationale and importance.

The aim of the study: a purpose or goal of the research project that declares the primary reason for conducting the study. It outlines the general direction of the research and what it intended to achieve. An author expresses in a single clear statement (or several statements) the aim of the study. It also explains how the current research contributes to existing knowledge of love.

Research methods: the specific ways of conducting research. Writing about methods, researchers explain a set of postulates, rules, and methods they use in their study of love.

The highlights of results: the new knowledge and findings that a researcher has obtained to answer the research question(s). Please highlight the main results, presenting those in a logical sequence.

The summary of conclusions of a study: the significance of results within the broader context of love research. In other words, conclusions present the key takeaways derived from the study.

Please submit your abstract (from 400 to 500 words) in a designated field as a text.

Please start each section of the proposal with a new paragraph with subheadings in regular font, like Research background of the study,  The aim of the study,  Research methods, and so on, as outlined above.

The Style of Abstracts

We encourage you to use plain scholarly language that researchers from different disciplines can understand. Please avoid using specific disciplinary lexicon and abbreviations that may be unclear for scholars not versed in your area of study. Please explicitly define the key terms and concepts in the submitted proposal. You may include parenthetical in-text citations (like author’s name and year), if they are suitable, but no full descriptions of references.

In addition to the submission of the abstract, please indicate in your proposal form:

The academic discipline(s) your study represents or is closely related to. You may select more than one),e.g. history, philosophy, religious studies, literary studies, linguistics, anthropology, biology, sociology, psychology, communication studies. You may include any other? Please specify

The typical name of the countries, societies, or cultures your study presents (you may include more than one):

Five typical concepts or keywords associated with love that your study presents (besides the word “love”).This information will help us include you in an appropriate thematic session.

If you have any questions submission process, please contact us at love.studies.institute@gmail.com

You can proceed with submitting your proposal form through the link here.

The Process of Review and Acceptance of the Submitted Proposals

The submitted proposals will be peer-reviewed and selected based on their quality. If interested, please submit your chapter proposal by April 30, 2025.

You should expect the details to be announced upon acceptance of a paper. Among the general requirements are (a) the manuscript’s length of up to 4000 words, including references and appendices; (b) APA style of writing and references; and (c) following the specific structure of the report.

The 2nd International Conference on Love Studies on 14-16 March 2025 was a success

This online conference hosted by the International Institute of Love Studies featured pre-recorded talks and livestreamed thematic panel sessions. The conference focused on international collaboration and integrating love research from different disciplines and cultures to increase diversity. The motto of the Conference was “Love in cultural contexts.” Participants highlighted the importance of cultural context when studying how people live and love in different societies.

The Diversity of Love Journal presents an overview of this interdisciplinary conference on love research as well as several thematic panel sessions that took place at the conference:

Love in Popular Culture and Literary Explorations, chaired by Willie van Peer from Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich, Germany,

Evolutionary and Cultural Perspectives on Love, chaired by Ian Skoggard from Human Relations Area Files at Yale University, USA,

Experiences and Expressions of Love, in sequence of Session 1 chaired by Sandra Langeslag from University of Missouri – St. Louis, USA, andSession 2 chaired by Charles Hill from Whittier College, USA,

Conceptual and Linguistic Research on Love, chaired by Zoltán Kövecses, from Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary, and Iryna Pinich from Kyiv National Linguistic University, Ukraine, and Södertörn University, Sweden,

Love and Family Relationships, chaired Anna Romanowicz from Jagiellonian University, Poland, and Claude-Hélène Mayer from University of Johannesburg, South Africa.