Spot the difference: Is it love or sexual attraction?

Love and sexual attraction have common features: both are strong emotions, we can also experience sexual attraction towards the people we love. However, we can also feel it towards people we don't like. While the ultimate goal of sexual attraction is sex, love is oriented towards maintaining a relationship, maintaining a strong bond defined by closeness and living together. These are some of the key differences between love and lust:

Love fulfills our need for support. In the cultural sense, we often associate sexual attraction and love, but there are good reasons for thinking that there are actually three different motivational systems. Lust can be the trigger that fuels our pursuit of relationships, attraction can help us distinguish between more or less desirable partners, and love can be what keeps us around to respond and care for others. Love is especially important when we are sad, scared or need support in some other way, reports medik.rs.

Love compels honesty. When we feel secure in our relationships - we know that someone loves us and will be there for us - we act more authentically. If we question someone's trustworthiness, fear they will leave us, or think they might not be there when we need them, we are more likely to lie or deceive. In other words, feeling secure love in a relationship increases authenticity. Sexual attraction alone is unlikely to foster this same degree of authenticity.

Love makes us ready to sacrifice. Sacrifice is not fun: it involves giving up something precious (for example time, money...) and it can come at a high price. In relationships, willingness to sacrifice is associated with higher levels of commitment and investment in the relationship. This type of relationship is more like love than sexual attraction; shows plans for the future and caring for someone.