Hadi Kazemi and Samaneh Pakdel New Romantic Appearance

To get an idea of how the feelings associated with romance are born, we first turned to the research of two Harvard associate professors, Richard Schwartz and Jacqueline Olds. According to their studies — as told to Scott Edwards in On the Brain, Harvard’s neuroscience newsletter — when you’re starting out in a new relationship, your brain is flooded with dopamine and other chemicals that ignite obsessive, reward-seeking behaviors (not unlike the effects of cocaine and alcohol). This is what gives you those butterflies in your stomach, sweaty palms and inability to craft a coherent text message whenever you think of your “one true wuv.".