If you’re a hopeless romantic you should maybe skip this section and go share a chocolate sundae with your beloved…

Studies show monogamous bonds (only one partner for life) are actually very rare in mammals. Less than 5% are monogamous with no clear pattern to explain why it occurs. Monogamy, it appears, is mostly for the birds.

In those rare mammals that practice it, nature seemed to use the same biochemistry that bond a mother to an infant and reinstalled it to bind the two partners together. A study using prairie voles showed that a species could be turned from promiscuous to devoted partner by changing a single gene related to vasopressin.

Chemicals ‘shmemicals’, though…love keeps us happy, content and glues societies together. In the end we just love to love.