Evolutionary reasons for love?

Question

I was wondering why humans have evolved to love instead of just reproduce. Is there some sort of evolutionary advantage to love? And also, what's the deal with monogamy? It seems to me that monogamy would decrease the chance of reproducing, so why have humans evolved to favor monogamy? sorry if this is a dumb question, i don't know much about science.

Answer 1

Well we humans just developed love probably because of our increased intelligence and its just like asking why we developed culture. Monogamy ensures that your offspring will have a better chance of survival because if you mate a lot and have tons of children most of them will probably die and since humans feel love a guy with many wives would probably be very stressed because he would need to deal with them all. Love is the mother of monogamy. Besides, even with monogamy a lot of countries are overpopulated

Answer 2

Monogamy is a comparatively new concept developed in human society designed to reduce social strife. Certainly In the past, the royalties of Europe, Emperors of China, the Islamic prophet Muhammad, or the Zulu chieftains took multiple wives. The Nords and Mongol hordes raped and pillaged their way throughout europe with little regard as to how many women they fertilized.  

But there's a big problem with polygamy. Suppose 50% of the population took two wives....that would mean the other 50% gets *none*. Having large portions of our society unable to start families or otherwise pass down their genes would result in huge social turmoil, with the sexually frustrated underclass igniting revolutions, resorting to religious fanaticism and terrorism, or otherwise acting like our esteemed Muslim brethren in the Middle East (whom, incidentally, still promotes polygamy today).

So simply put, humans did not "evolve" monogamy, it is a man-made law that protects social stability, like "thou shalt not steal" or any of the other commandments carved onto a stone slab by a biblical madman on a mountain. And it works.....people settle down and start families instead of strapping bombs to themselves for 72 non-existent virgins in a non-existent heaven.

As for love, like previous answerers stated, is an emotion made to tie down the father and ensure his equal contribution to the welfare of the kid he sired. Simply put, two parents are better than one. In fact, three is better than two and that's where the homosexuals come in, but that's a subject for a different debate.

Answer 3

monogamy is a way of ensuring ones genes continue to be placed forth..

raising an ofspring with 2 parents greatly increases it's chance at survival..

very fundimental ecology.. but still a good question

it's also a driving force to get us to really put forth our best foot towards those we find geneticaly superior (attractive)

Answer 4

Just as said below on this post, two parents raising a child greatly increases its chance of survival than does one.  As for love, there is generally a drop off after about 6 years of being together for most humans.  This happens around that age because the hypothetical child would be old enough to survive and contribute to the mother.  Also, with the father and mother being less in love, they are both free to explore new possibilities and further propagate their genome.