Is love blind?
We look at some people sometimes and wonder what on earth they see in each other.
We also wonder why some people go from one abusive relationship to another.
Reminds me of those T-shirts you buy in Phuket with the wordings “Same same but different.”
Perhaps the “Konrad Lorenz effect” is one interesting way of explaining all that.
Nobel Laureate Konrad Lorenz was an ethologist who did a lot of research into the power of early imprinting.
In his work with birds, Lorenz described how newly hatched chicks became rapidly and strongly attached to parents or parental surrogates.
He described how newly hatched goslings would imprint on him – because he was their first contact – instead of the mother goose. He demonstrated this by showing that they followed him around wherever he went.
Does a similar pattern exist in humankind?
If it’s so, it may answer the vexing question why “love is blind.” It could explain the “chemistry” or “coup de fondre” (lighting bolt) of falling in love, implying a sudden subliminal recognition of faces or features that remind us of close family members – most importantly our parents.
No wonder one man’s folly is another man’s wife.