is love blind, or efficient?

researchers at oregon state university think they may have discovered scientific evidence of the bromide, "love is blind." frank bernieri et al. asked volunteers to identify couples in love, and results were compared to whether or not volunteers were actually in love themselves. the results are surprising:

'Overall, we simply could not find any common attributes among those were who very good at this - other than the fact that they were not in love at the time of the study. The ironic part was discovering that people who were most in love were most confident in their ability.

'But as it turned out,' Bernieri said, 'they were so blind in their love they turned out to be wrong more often than right.'

...

Bernieri said what likely happens is that couples in love tend to project some of their own theories and attitudes about love onto others. Or they may identify certain behaviors by other couples - snuggling, a hand on the knee, intense eye contact - and attribute them to true, long-lasting companionate love instead of, say, infatuation or lust.

as far as i know, "blind love" is not a validated psychological phenomenon, although it is a catchy research agenda. perhaps further study could reveal some truth to this folklore, but there could be a another explanation for this phenomenon.

most singles are at least open to the possibility of finding a partner and monitor their environs for signals from potential mates. this probably takes up a nontrivial amount of brainpower. in contrast, most individuals in love no longer require this monitoring mechanism. perhaps they have "turned off" this device and devoted that brainpower to other activities. if one is in a relationship, it is more efficient to devote that energy to other pursuits, such as maintaining the relationship, than constantly monitoring the environment for signals. it may not be an ability we can turn on and off consciously. so, singles would be better at identifying signals of true love, as they are more attuned to them...

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