Is Love Blind?

The new Netflix series Love Is Blind is a must watch for the reality tv connoisseur. Every Bachelor lover has already binged watched the first season or has at least heard about this new series on Netflix. Similar to The Bachelor’s spin-off show, Bachelor in Paradise, the show follows the lives of various individuals who after getting to know one another and falling in love, get engaged and married within 4 weeks. Crazy, right!?

However, this show starts with a twist: the couples fall in love without actually seeing one another. They build a more personal and emotional connection through only talking to one another. This experiment is conducted to test the theory that love is blind. The various contestants fall in love with one another without the distractions of physical appearance, social media, or the realities of the outside world.

This show is extremely thought-provoking, as it has enticed many to question whether love truly is blind or not. 

Scientists and psychologists have argued that a degree of physical attraction is necessary for a good relationship because the lack of physical attraction results in a lack of sexual chemistry. Humans as a species are typically superficial for reasons of procreation. 

The Love Is Blind experiment demonstrated that physical attraction is not necessary for falling in love. Due to not being able to see one another, the men and women on the show had to really get to know one another’s personalities to see if there was an attraction. Some of the contestants chose to share their personal attributes, such as skin colour, hair colour, race, etc. While others, did not disclose what they looked like at all.

Some contestants grew extremely fond of one another and developed close relationships. This resulted in proclamations of love and eventual engagements. Finally, the contestants got to meet their fiancees for the first time and would now continue to build their relationship both emotionally and physically. 

Some relationships flourished, as there was an immediate physical connection, while others didn’t do so well because one partner perhaps couldn’t connect on a physical level.

According to scientists, there is some truth to the saying: love is blind. Feelings of love lead to suppression in the parts of the brain containing critical thought. Typically, when we love someone, we tend to be completely unaware of any negative traits that person may possess. 

Psychologists conducted a study that found that people love the idea of being in love and may not actually be in love. As humans, we long for companionship and intimacy. Just a hug alone increases levels of serotonin in your brain! 

This is seen via one of the couples on the show. While all the other couples seem to be flourishing in their relationships, both physically and emotionally, there was a case where the emotional connection wasn’t strong enough to build into a physical one. Physical attraction and various societal pressures weakened the relationship.

If this is the case, then it makes sense that to some degree there has to be physical attraction, although definitely not the most important part to building a healthy relationship. 

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• relationships