Attraction

St Valentine's Day presents mutual human desire as something smug and mutually self-absorbed

Hormones: Learning the rules of attraction

What really draws couples together? The mysteries of hormones are being unravelled – giving us fascinating new insights into our behaviour

Inside Attraction

Bernie Ecclestone syndrome

Friday, 7 August 2009

Lewis Smith: Male seahorses may be small, but think big with partners

The rules of attraction

Tuesday, 10 February 2009

Are lovers drawn together by the meeting of minds – or by hormones and body shape? Rob Sharp explains what makes us hot (or not)

Fifty ways to meet your lover

Sunday, 28 September 2008

Dawn Porter couldn't find a boyfriend – so she opened her eyes to some extreme ways to date...

Testosterone levels 'affect sexual attraction'

Monday, 15 September 2008

Women with high levels of testosterone are more attracted to masculine-looking men like James Bond actor Daniel Craig, scientists said today.

The mysterious power of attraction

Saturday, 13 September 2008

Sex and love are the great driving forces of human affairs. Yet how much do we actually understand them? Deborah Orr introduces a major two-week series

World of desirability: a guide to global tastes

Saturday, 13 September 2008

Attraction is in the eye of the beholder. But what it looks like can depend on where the beholder lives

"Beer goggles" exist: people do appear more attractive after a few drinks, according to researchers from the University of Bristol. Students who had consumed alcohol rated pictures of people their own age as being more attractive than did the controls in the experiment, who drunk only lime cordial.

Sleeping around: Men afraid of commitment

Saturday, 13 September 2008

'In a room packed full of men, I'll sniffout the emotionally unavailable one...'

Chemistry? It's all in the mind

Saturday, 13 September 2008

"Love at first sight" is defined as a condition in which someone feels romantic love for a stranger immediately upon meeting them. Brain imaging shows that when this happens areas of the brain involved with dopamine, a hormone and neurotransmitter, are activated. Dopamine has important roles in behaviour and information processing, in activity, motivation and reward, sleep, mood, attention and learning. Hence intense romantic love is associated with neuronal reward and motivation pathways in the brain, particularly in areas involved with addictive behaviour such as compulsive gambling.

Sex doctor: The look of love - what we see in people

Saturday, 13 September 2008

As someone who specialises in sex and relationships, I've spent a great deal of my life pondering exactly what is it that makes one person attractive, and another not. Looks clearly play a part but even the extraordinarily beautiful aren't to everyone's taste (Angelina Jolie being a case in point: a goddess to some and "lips like a fish" to others). Besides, we all know good looks wear off after the third date or two hours into the first meeting, if you're particularly bright and they're exceedingly dreary.

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