The nature of love revisited How social bonds shape development

In his seminal paper, The Nature of Love (1958), Harlow set the stage for the scientific study of love. Harlow, who suffered from severe depression, was driven by the fundamental belief that love was at the root of the condition that troubled him: “Love created, love destroyed, and love regained,” as he wrote in his personal writings (van Rosmalen et al. 2022). His work has provided an empirical basis for attachment theory and many other traditions that emphasize the importance of warm, responsive, and loving relationships in children's healthy development. Surprisingly, most researchers are reluctant to use the word love while studying phenomena that clearly represent the thing we intuitively call love, perhaps because love is seen as a mysterious and ultimately subjective experience. The terminology that has replaced love, therefore, derives mostly from attachment literature and comparative research (Panksepp 1998). Love became deconstructed in concepts such as attachment, warmth, affiliation, and sensitivity (Cassidy and Shaver 2018).

This special issue is our plea to bring back love in research on love. Since Harlow, we have learned a tremendous deal about love, its manifestations, its consequences, and its neurobiological underpinnings. The 20 papers part of this special issue showcase cutting-edge research in these domains. By putting love back in center stage, we can foster an interdisciplinary approach by bridging different fields and perspectives on this topic. We hope that our special issue will not only improve our understanding of love but also inform efforts to promote the quality of loving relationships, with the aim of facilitating the healthy development of infants and children.