Love and interpersonal attraction

Yeah ! A hot topic at last ! Well I have been wanting to write on this, but I am afraid analyzing something like romantic love will put off many or take the fun out of it. But psychologists have studied this hot topic in depth. Some of the findings run contrary to commonly held notions.
Positive feelings of one person towards another constitutes interpersonal attraction.

Factors underlying attraction

Proximity: It is a common experience that people fall in love with people with whom they move around. Classmates, coworkers, neighbors, fellow commuters and travellers etc are more likely to end up loving each other.

Physical attractiveness: Though we prefer to swear that 'Beauty is only skin deep', there is extensive evidence to show that we are only doing lip service to this. Many studies point out that physical attractiveness is a strong determinant that increases chances of falling in love. You tend to fall in love with people whom you rate high on the scale of attractiveness. It is also found that people tend to choose partners who are similar to them on the scale of attractiveness. Another finding is that attractiveness is more important for women than men.

Similarity: Studies show that the theory 'like pole repel' is not true regarding love. In fact there is evidence to show that similarities in background, interests and tastes etc increase chance so falling in love with each other. 'Birds of the same feather tend to flock together !'

Reciprocity: We are more likely to like and fall in love with others who reciprocate our positive expression of liking.

Though these are some pointers in understanding why people who like each other do so, the ultimate thing called love is still a mystery.