In a groundbreaking new study published in the open-access journal PLOS One, researchers from Pennsylvania State University have unveiled compelling evidence that the simple act of expressing love not only influences the feelings of connection in daily life but also significantly predicts how much individuals feel loved themselves. This research, conducted by Zita Oravecz and colleagues, offers profound insights into the dynamical interplay between expressing and receiving love, drawing from a rigorous four-week longitudinal survey involving frequent real-time assessments of emotional experience.
Love is often conceptualized as grand, sweeping gestures—romantic dinners, birthdays, or profound declarations. Yet, the subtleties of everyday emotional exchanges play a far more crucial role in shaping the fabric of human relationships. This study draws upon the theory of “positivity resonance,” which posits that small, frequent, positive interactions create and strengthen social bonds through mutual acknowledgment and shared emotional experience. Positivity resonance emphasizes the cyclical nature of emotional exchange, where love given and love received may reinforce each other, fostering increased psychological wellbeing.
To explore these mechanisms, the researchers designed an intensive, moment-to-moment survey methodology. Fifty-two volunteers were prompted six times daily via mobile devices to rate, on a continuous scale from 0 to 100, the extent to which they had expressed love and felt loved in the intervals since the last prompt. This high-frequency ecological momentary assessment allowed for a granular exploration of the temporal dynamics between expressing and feeling love, moving beyond traditional retrospective assessments which can be biased by memory errors and social desirability.
Analysis of the rich dataset revealed an asymmetry in the reciprocity of love exchanges. Specifically, participants who reported expressing more love in a given interval tended subsequently to report stronger feelings of being loved. Conversely, feelings of receiving love did not predict greater expression of love in following moments. This divergence highlights a potentially fundamental process in emotional experience: the act of giving love may serve as a catalyst that enhances one’s perception of relational support and affection, while merely feeling loved does not necessarily prompt outward expressions.
Further, the persistence of these feelings over time differed between the two dimensions. Feelings of being loved showed greater temporal stability, lingering across subsequent measurement points, while feelings of expressing love were more transient. This temporal disparity could reflect psychological processes: being loved may establish a durable sense of security and acceptance, whereas expressing love might be a more situationally contingent behavior dependent on ongoing social interactions.
These nuanced findings carry significant implications for mental health and relational interventions. Since expressing love appears to enhance feelings of being loved—and feelings of being loved correlate strongly with personal flourishing and happiness—the study suggests that encouraging individuals to deliberately express affection and care could be a viable pathway to improving emotional wellbeing. This approach could be especially relevant in therapeutic and counseling contexts where fostering positive affect and reinforcing interpersonal bonds are key treatment goals.
From a neurobiological perspective, the reinforcement loop uncovered here may engage reward circuits in the brain linked to social bonding, such as those involving oxytocin and dopamine pathways. As people express love, the positive feedback they receive internally could activate these systems, heightening their sense of connectedness and reducing stress. Such mechanistic insights, although beyond the immediate scope of this survey-based study, open avenues for interdisciplinary research combining psychological data with neurochemical and neuroimaging approaches.
The survey also incorporated measures of overall life satisfaction and flourishing. Participants who reported consistently high feelings of being loved were more likely to assess themselves as flourishing, indicating a robust association between interpersonal emotional connectivity and broader indicators of psychological health. This adds to a growing body of literature affirming the central role of social relationships in human well-being.
An intriguing aspect of the findings is the lack of bidirectional reciprocity in love exchange dynamics. While common vernacular and many psychological theories assume that love flows cyclically and mutually, this study suggests that the internal emotional benefits of expressing love may not be contingent on receiving love in return. This insight nuances our understanding of social connection, implying that the act of giving love itself carries intrinsic psychological value independent of external validation.
The study’s methodology, leveraging frequent real-time data collection, represents a significant advance in affective science, capturing the fluid and momentary nature of emotional experiences. This approach overcomes many of the limitations of traditional surveys and highlights the potential of ecological momentary assessment in unlocking the subtleties of human emotion.
Looking ahead, the authors encourage spreading love more deliberately in daily life, encapsulated in their call to action: “Let’s spread more love in the world by expressing love throughout our daily lives.” Their findings suggest that by doing so, individuals can foster not only deeper connections with others but also enrich their own emotional lives, potentially contributing to improved psychological and physical health outcomes.
In sum, this novel research underscores a profound psychological truth: love is not merely something we receive passively; it is an active force we cultivate by expressing it. The intricate temporal dance between expressing and feeling love reveals a pathway through which everyday emotional acts accumulate to shape our sense of belonging, fulfillment, and happiness.
Subject of Research: Not applicable
Article Title: How much we express love predicts how much we feel loved in daily life
News Publication Date: 2-Jul-2025
Web References: http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0323326
References: Williams L, Kim SH, Li Y, Heshmati S, Vandekerckhove J, Roeser RW, et al. (2025) How much we express love predicts how much we feel loved in daily life. PLOS One 20(7): e0323326.
Image Credits: Lindy Williams, CC-BY 4.0
Keywords: emotional expression, love, positivity resonance, ecological momentary assessment, psychological wellbeing, social bonding, flourishing, affective science
