Thank you for visiting nature. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer. In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript. Relationships are central to the human experience. Over the course of a lifetime, most of us have, want, lose or think about them. But the study of romance, dating and relationships is not as romantic as it might sound.
People are complicated; couples even more so. Funding is scarce, statistics are tricky and media reports tend to oversimplify findings with the unrealistic goal of providing clear advice for people who want to find a love match. Nature spoke to four scientists who study relationships, including Garcia. They shared what they love about studying love, what obstacles they face in the process β and how they navigate their own romantic lives.
I started becoming interested in thinking about relationships when I was doing my military service in Singapore. I enlisted at the age of 19, completed my service and started university at It was a time when many young guys had relationship issues; their partners left them for other folks in university while we were away in the army.
I gave a lot of advice and shared a lot of similar stories with my friends. We spent many late nights just talking. A decade of love: mapping the landscape of romantic love research through bibliometric analysi. Early in my career, I went abroad to the United States to do a three-month training programme, which exposed me to the scientific study of close relationships. It was a new experience for me and made me wonder how people maintain relationships.
A big focus of my work has been understanding commitment. I get questions from students and the public seeking personal advice about red flags, and how to get into β and out of β relationships and what to look for in a potential partner. Do I give this person a chance? Come mate with me. These are exciting times to be researching relationships and singlehood.
