IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/sagope/v3y2013i2p2158244013492160.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Prevalence and Nature of Unrequited Love

Author

Listed:
  • Robert G. Bringle
  • Terri Winnick
  • Robert J. Rydell

Abstract

Unrequited love (UL) is unreciprocated love that causes yearning for more complete love. Five types of UL are delineated and conceptualized on a continuum from lower to greater levels of interdependence: crush on someone unavailable, crush on someone nearby, pursuing a love object, longing for a past lover, and an unequal love relationship. Study 1a found all types of UL relationships to be less emotionally intense than equal love and 4 times more frequent than equal love during a 2-year period. Study 1b found little evidence for limerent qualities of UL. Study 2 found all types of UL to be less intense than equal love on passion, sacrifice, dependency, commitment, and practical love, but more intense than equal love on turmoil. These results suggest that UL is not a good simulation of true romantic love, but an inferior approximation of that ideal.

Suggested Citation

  • Robert G. Bringle & Terri Winnick & Robert J. Rydell, 2013. "The Prevalence and Nature of Unrequited Love," SAGE Open, , vol. 3(2), pages 21582440134, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:sagope:v:3:y:2013:i:2:p:2158244013492160
    DOI: 10.1177/2158244013492160
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2158244013492160
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/2158244013492160?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:sagope:v:3:y:2013:i:2:p:2158244013492160. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.