Picnics, flowers, and moonlight strolls: an exploration of routine love behaviors

This study focused on the behavioral aspect of love, with a purpose of explicating routine behaviors associated with love. A 37-item Love Behaviors Scale was created to explicate those behaviors indicative of expressing love towards a romantic partner. Analysis of the resulting factor matrix yielded a reliable five-factor structure of the behaviors--Mutual Activity, Special Occasion, Offerings, Selfless, Sacrifices. Although both genders considered the behaviors to be love-related, women placed greater emphasis on the behaviors than men. Individuals who had never been in love also perceived the behaviors as love-related. Participants also indicated 13 additional behaviors which should be included in the Love Behaviors Scale.