We die for love; we kill for love: Twas ever thus.
But why? That’s the question biological anthropologist Helen Fisher, PhD, has been asking for decades, and it’s the topic of her Assembly Series presentation, “Lust, Romance, Attachment: The Drive to Love and Whom We Choose.”
The event will be held at 5 p.m. Friday, April 4, in Louderman Hall, Room 458, on Washington University in St. Louis’ Danforth Campus; it is free and open to the public.
Fisher, a research professor and member of the Center for Human Evolution Studies at Rutgers University, has studied marriage and divorce in 58 societies and adultery in 42 cultures, as well as patterns of monogamy and desertion in birds and mammals, and gender differences in the brain and in behavior. From her research, Fisher has identified three brain systems driving the universal human desires of lust, romantic love and long-term attachment.
In addition to discussing the neurochemistry of love, Fisher also will explore what drives the selection process. As chief scientific adviser to the Internet dating site Chemistry.com, Fisher has gathered data on 28,000 members and from that process has drawn conclusions about how an individual’s personality type shapes the kind of person he or she will love. (Take Fisher’s personality test here.)
Among her best-selling books is the most recent, “Why Him? Why Her?” Her TED talks are among the most popular and the one on “Why We Love, Why We Cheat” has been viewed by more than 5 million people.
Fisher’s talk is sponsored by WUSTL’s Student Union, the undergraduate governing body that provides funding for student group programming, and presented by the Student Health Advisory Committee, a student organization that promotes health and wellness.
For information on future Assembly Series programs, visit here or call 314-935-4620.