Love Is An Evolutionary Advantage
All around the world, in every culture, in movies, in songs, in the media, love is romanticized. Love is depicted as the most important emotion, and the cause of so much good and bad in the world. The love between Shah Jahan and his wife was the motivation behind one of the most famous landmarks in the world, the Taj Mahal, while love between Cleopatra and Marc Antony caused a war that changed the landscape of the entire Roman Empire.
This deep passionate love is a form of physiological commitment that has allowed humanity to survive and progress for millennia, and the earliest form of love was the bond between mother and child. Humans, like most other mammals, are a species that rely heavily on this bond, as it allows for a better chance of offspring survival. Humans give birth to a few offspring and it is a long and energy draining process. Therefore, it is in our best interest to protect our offspring to allow them to survive and stay healthy. Love was simply an adaptation that allowed for this.
The ability to love is literally written in our DNA - it is a trait shared by all humans dating back to mammals from hundreds of millions of years ago. Most other species do not share this trait. For example, mother Komodo dragons will eat their young if given the chance, and many other reptile species abandon their eggs. Humans, on the other hand, are wired to stick around for longer, at least according to our evolutionary history. Human babies are not yet fit to survive in the world on their own, unlike many other species. In fact, humans have an unusually long maturation period, till about 18 years old. Our body is not fully developed until this time and it takes our brain another 7 years to fully develop. The love between mother and child serves as a “commitment device”, encouraging a mother figure to support the offspring until they are fully developed and fully capable of survival on their own.
Later, this specific bond between mother and child evolved into the many forms of love we may experience in our lifetime such as friendship, family, and romantic love. These are all adaptations that allow humans to better connect and help one another survive, allowing our species to continue to live and grow. Friendship forces us to improve our social skills, which leads to collaboration with others and the ability to see new perspectives. Family, whether biological or chosen, gives us a support system and teaches us loyalty. Romantic love has many lessons, and often leads to more human children being right into the world, expanding our species.
Over time, these relationships have become an important part of human society in every country around the world. Love has been packaged into practical familiar boxes that allow us to easily navigate our relationships. Marriage is a common declaration of romantic love in many cultures, but has evolved to be more of a practical commitment, financially and socially. This also allows for the bond between father and family, which helps human children survive even better. Family values across the world have many distinctions, but the idea of loyalty and supporting others is common across many cultures.
The goal of species evolution is to outcompete all other species, to be dominant and have no flaws. While it is impossible to be completely perfect, love allows our species to cooperate, collaborate, and protect others. Everything we gain and learn from our relationships is what allows us to evolve as individuals and as a species.